Noun
Synonym of rum, an alcoholic beverage distilled from sugarcane, similar spirits.
Usage- Obsolete
- Uncountable
- Examples
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More examples (1)
... I went aboard the Fellowship of 100 and 70 Tuns a Flemish bottom, the Master George Luxon of Bittiford in Devonshire, several of my friends came to bid me farewell, among the rest Captain Thomas Wannerton who drank to me a pint of kill-devil alias Rhum at a draught ...
...the chiefe fudling they make in the Island is Rumbullion, alias Kill-Devill, and this is made of suggar canes distilled, a hott, hellish and terrible liquor.
KILL DEVIL. New ſtill-burnt rum.
More examples (3)
Without half the indulgences British troops have, were these poor miserable wretches left to their fate, not an allowance of spirits to render their water palatable, except new rum, which is not improperly termed "kill devil."
Monday 24, I went aboard the Fellowship of 170 tons, a Flemish bottom: several of my friends came to bid me farewell, among them the rest Capt. Thomas Wannerton, who drank to me a pint of kill-devil alias rhum at a draught; at 6 o'clock in the morning, we set sail for Massachusetts.
Some nights Musa brought her small gifts of rich molasses smuggled from the boiling house, or a tot of kill-devil made from the skimmings of the sugar vats that transformed the crushed cane into a harsh, courage-giving liquid.