GRAIN ALCOHOL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does grain alcohol mean? 

• GRAIN ALCOHOL (noun)
  The noun GRAIN ALCOHOL has 1 sense:

1. the intoxicating agent in fermented and distilled liquors; used pure or denatured as a solvent or in medicines and colognes and cleaning solutions and rocket fuel; proposed as a renewable clean-burning additive to gasoline

  Familiarity information: GRAIN ALCOHOL used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GRAIN ALCOHOL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The intoxicating agent in fermented and distilled liquors; used pure or denatured as a solvent or in medicines and colognes and cleaning solutions and rocket fuel; proposed as a renewable clean-burning additive to gasoline

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

ethanol; ethyl alcohol; fermentation alcohol; grain alcohol

Hypernyms ("grain alcohol" is a kind of...):

alcohol (any of a series of volatile hydroxyl compounds that are made from hydrocarbons by distillation)

plant product (a product made from plant material)

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

spirits of wine (rectified ethyl alcohol)

absolute alcohol (pure ethyl alcohol (containing no more than 1% water))

denatured alcohol (ethyl alcohol that is unfit for drinking but is still useful for other purposes)

Holonyms ("grain alcohol" is a substance of...):

ethyl alcohol; neutral spirits (nonflavored alcohol of 95 percent or 190 proof used for blending with straight whiskies and in making gin and liqueurs)

gasohol (a gasoline substitute consisting of 90% gasoline and 10% grain alcohol from corn)

 Context examples 

A colorless organic liquid also known as ethyl alcohol or grain alcohol.

(Ethanol, NCI Thesaurus)

He and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side-street drug stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That's one of his little stunts.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)