BEER

beer (bîr) noun

1.a. A fermented alcoholic beverage brewed from malt and flavored with hops. b. A fermented beverage brewed by traditional methods that is then dealcoholized so that the finished product contains no more than 0.5 percent alcohol. c. A carbonated beverage produced by a method in which the fermentation process is either circumvented or altered, resulting in a finished product having an alcohol content of no more than 0.01 percent.
2.A beverage made from extracts of roots and plants: birch beer.


[Middle English ber, from Old English beor, from West Germanic, probably from Latin bibere, to drink.]

Excerpted from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition Copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V., further reproduction and distribution restricted in accordance with the Copyright Law of the United States. All rights reserved.