BARLEYCORN • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Barleycorn

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

Listen

noun

Barleycorn n.

A grain or "corn" of barley.

Formerly, a measure of length, equal to the average length of a grain of barley; the third part of an inch.

John Barleycorn, a humorous personification of barley as the source of malt liquor or whisky.

See images of 'Barleycorn'

Etymology of 'Barleycorn'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Barleycorn" Quotes from Famous Books

... not be more serious if you really had got killed, Poddy," and again he stroked the emblem of his entrez to the social functions of John Barleycorn. "I'm afraid your mind is warping in the sunshine of your own cleverness, Poddy. This fool notion of yours—coming to me about this money Nickleby's lost—if anybody had told me that once that long green was in your possession you'd ...

— Every Man for Himself • Hopkins Moorhouse

... Inspiring bold John Barleycorn! What dangers thou canst make us scorn! Wi' Tippenny, we fear nae evil, Wi' Usqueba, we'll face the devil! The swats sae ream'd in Tammie's noddle, Fair play, he car'd na de'ils a boddle. But Maggie stood right sair astonish'd, Till by the heel and hand admonish'd, ...

— Lectures on the English Poets - Delivered at the Surrey Institution • William Hazlitt

... express herself at the polls, her influence will be felt as much in the South as in other sections; it will throughout the United States seal the doom of the liquor traffic. The women will stand guard at the grave of John Barleycorn and make sure that he will never ...

— In His Image • William Jennings Bryan

... of every thing interesting in the establishment; and the Squire, to whom the spectacle was entirely new, stood wrapt in wonder at the vast magnitude of its immense vats and boilers, containing, as he observed, of the fluid of Sir John Barleycorn, a sufficiency to inundate the whole neighbourhood! "Such a circumstance," said the attendant, "actually occurred a few years ago, when the vat burst, and an ocean of beer rushed forth, with such impetuous ...

— Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II. • Pierce Egan

Words linked to "Barleycorn" : barley, grain, caryopsis, common barley, Hordeum vulgare, pearl barley, food grain, cereal, John Barleycorn