Library / English Dictionary

BREW

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Drink made by steeping and boiling and fermenting rather than distilling

Synonyms:

brew; brewage

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("brew" is a kind of...):

alcohol; alcoholic beverage; alcoholic drink; inebriant; intoxicant (a liquor or brew containing alcohol as the active agent)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "brew"):

beer (a general name for alcoholic beverages made by fermenting a cereal (or mixture of cereals) flavored with hops)

kvass (fermented beverage resembling beer but made from rye or barley)

mead (made of fermented honey and water)

cassiri (a drink resembling beer; made from fermented cassava juice)

spruce beer (a brew made by fermenting molasses and other sugars with the sap of spruce trees (sometimes with malt))

Derivation:

brew (sit or let sit in boiling water so as to extract the flavor)

brew (prepare by brewing)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Sit or let sit in boiling water so as to extract the flavor

Example:

the tea is brewing

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "brew" is one way to...):

imbue; soak (fill, soak, or imbue totally)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

brew (drink made by steeping and boiling and fermenting rather than distilling)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Prepare by brewing

Example:

people have been brewing beer for thousands of years

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "brew" is one way to...):

create from raw material; create from raw stuff (make from scratch)

"Brew" entails doing...:

ferment; sour; turn; work (go sour or spoil)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

brew; brewage (drink made by steeping and boiling and fermenting rather than distilling)

brewer (the owner or manager of a brewery)

brewer (someone who brews beer or ale from malt and hops and water)

brewery (a plant where beer is brewed by fermentation)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Mr. Knightley had been telling him something about brewing spruce-beer, and he wanted to put it down; but when he took out his pencil, there was so little lead that he soon cut it all away, and it would not do, so you lent him another, and this was left upon the table as good for nothing.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Sit there, she said, placing me on the sofa, while we take our things off and get the tea ready; it is another privilege we exercise in our little moorland home—to prepare our own meals when we are so inclined, or when Hannah is baking, brewing, washing, or ironing.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Yet to him, used as he was to a life of such quiet that the failure of a brewing or the altering of an anthem had seemed to be of the deepest import, the quick changing play of the lights and shadows of life was strangely startling and interesting.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My uncle did not appear at breakfast in the morning, but Ambrose brewed him a dish of chocolate and took it to his room.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Trouble was brewing.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Mr. Laurence seemed to suspect that something was brewing in her mind, for after taking several brisk turns about the room, he faced round on her, speaking so abruptly that Rasselas tumbled face downward on the floor.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

That a man whom he had come to regard as a machine for tying cravats and brewing chocolate should suddenly develop fiery human passions was indeed a prodigy.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There was mischief brewing among these hot-headed, short-spoken salts, but Captain Foley changed the subject to discuss the new ships which were being built in the French ports.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)