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ALE
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A general name for beer made with a top fermenting yeast; in some of the United States an ale is (by law) a brew of more than 4% alcohol by volume
Classified under:
Nouns denoting foods and drinks
Hypernyms ("ale" is a kind of...):
beer (a general name for alcoholic beverages made by fermenting a cereal (or mixture of cereals) flavored with hops)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ale"):
Weissbier; wheat beer; white beer (a general name for beers made from wheat by top fermentation; usually very pale and cloudy and effervescent)
bitter (English term for a dry sharp-tasting ale with strong flavor of hops (usually on draft))
Burton (a strong dark English ale)
pale ale (an amber colored ale brewed with pale malts; similar to bitter but drier and lighter)
porter; porter's beer (a very dark sweet ale brewed from roasted unmalted barley)
stout (a strong very dark heavy-bodied ale made from pale malt and roasted unmalted barley and (often) caramel malt with hops)
Context examples:
Great rounds of beef, saddles of mutton, smoking tongues, veal and ham pies, turkeys and chickens, and geese, with every variety of vegetables, and a succession of fiery cherries and heavy ales were the main staple of the feast.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Squire, said he, when Dance has had his ale he must, of course, be off on his Majesty's service; but I mean to keep Jim Hawkins here to sleep at my house, and with your permission, I propose we should have up the cold pie and let him sup.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Good dame, I prythee give each of these men a bottrine of wine or a jack of ale.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
So she left the pan on the fire and took a large jug and went into the cellar and tapped the ale cask.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
I warmed the ale and made the toast on the usual infallible principles.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
It was a change for them to turn their backs upon the cooking of Weltjie and of Ude, or the chambertin of old Q., and to dine upon a porter-house steak washed down by a pint of ale from a pewter pot.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
When we got to the inn, the squire and Dr. Livesey were seated together, finishing a quart of ale with a toast in it, before they should go aboard the schooner on a visit of inspection.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Whilst he was speaking the landlady came in again, bearing a broad platter, upon which stood all the beakers and flagons charged to the brim with the brown ale or the ruby wine.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
And when he came into the palace, the flies were sleeping on the walls; the spit was standing still; the butler had the jug of ale at his lips, going to drink a draught; the maid sat with a fowl in her lap ready to be plucked; and the cook in the kitchen was still holding up her hand, as if she was going to beat the boy.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
There was wine, and there was strong ale; and after dinner Mrs. Micawber made us a bowl of hot punch with her own hands.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
