grog

Etymology

An allusion to Admiral Edward Vernon (nicknamed “Old Grog” after the grogram coat he habitually wore), who in 1740 ordered his sailors' rum to be watered down.

noun

1. (original meaning) An alcoholic beverage made with rum and water, especially that once issued to sailors of the Royal Navy.
   […] giving him a calebash, and the best part of a bottle of my rum, I desired him to run to the creek, and make me some grog, and this he did; but the poor fellow, never having made grog before, poured in all the spirits and but very little water, doubtless thinking, that the stronger it was the better; which beverage I swallowed to the bottom, without taking time to taste it, and I became instantly so much intoxicated that I could hardly keep my feet. 1796, John Stedman, chapter 11, in Narrative of a Five Years’ Expedition, volume 1, London: J. Johnson, page 264
2. (by extension, Australia, New Zealand) Any alcoholic beverage.
   I quite understood their drift, and after a stiff glass of grog, or rather more of the same, and with each a sovereign in hand, they made light of the attack, and swore they would encounter a worse madman any day for the pleasure of meeting so 'bloomin' good a bloke' as your correspondent. 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, published 1993, page 142
3. (countable, Australia, New Zealand) A glass or serving of an alcoholic beverage.
   1950, Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice [The Legacy], New York: William Morrow, Chapter 5, p. 138, Joe […] told them how he had been nailed up to be beaten, and they shouted another grog for him.
4. An alcoholic beverage made with hot water or tea, sugar and rum, sometimes also with lemon or lime juice and spices, particularly cinnamon.
5. (ceramics) A type of pre-fired clay that has been ground and screened to a specific particle size.

verb

1. (ceramics) To grind and screen (clay) to a specific particle size.