barley, n.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

barley n.¹

also barley juice, ...oil, …pop, …water, …wine

[SE barley + juice n.¹ (3a)/pop n.¹ (2a); late 19C+ is US Midwest/black/campus use]

beer.

1625		Hart. Anat. Ur. I v 46: The women... are not so busie... with the strong barley-water as our British women [F&H].
1641		Brothers of the Blade 6: [W]e want [...] the blood of the Grape, or the juyce of Barley, to [...] revive our decayed and stupid Spirits.
1672		J. Phillips Maronides (1678) VI 19: Few men by gods though lov’d as dearly / As men themselves love juice of Barley / [...] / Have cause to brag of their return.
1737		Pope Mother Gin 25: Two large casks of fatt’ning Barley Oil (Strong drink is called in the Canting Dialect Oil of barley.
1785		W. Forbes Dominie Deposed 13: Still girding at the barley juice, And oft gets drunk.
1788		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd edn).
1790		Dying Groans of Sir John Barleycorn 2: My last wishes and dying words; with my kind caution to my beloved friends and companions the innumerable tribe of Barley-bibbers.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1821		‘A Real Paddy’ Real Life in Ireland 148: Bob Johnston, reeling ripe with the barley juice.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1837		‘The Sedgfield Frolic’ in Rum Ti Tum! in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 178: The tune was juice of barley, / Which made them dance merrily.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight 229: Strong ale is variously called [...] nappy, stingo, barley-wine.
1966		Current Sl. I:1 3/1: Barley water Beer.
1972		D. Claerbaut Black Jargon in White America 57: n. beer: He’s got some barley.
1975		L. Dills CB Slanguage 186: Barley Pop: beer.
1992		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 1: barley pop – beer.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 126: Beer is the beverage of choice, and it is variously called [...] brewdog, barley pop, icy pop, and cornflakes in a can.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

barleybree (n.) [15C bree, broth or juice in which anything has been boiled or marinated]

(orig. Scot.) strong ale.

1789		Burns O Willie Brew’d in Works (1842) 164/1: The cock may craw, the day may daw, And aye we’ll taste the barley bree.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Apr. 6/1: For a trifling bit of rent he’ll lease to a working man a tip-top bran new house got up in a novel plan, complete in every way, with comfort in every form – a regular paradise it is to shelter in every storm, hot water laid on in pipes ready for toddy or tea, and a tap or two from which you can draw the ‘barley bree’.

barley broth (n.)

strong ale .

1593		‘Philip Foulface’ Bacchus’ Bountie in Harleian Misc. II (1809) 273: Goody Goodale [...] standing stoutly in his opinion, that the barley-broath above all other, did beare away the bell, and neither grape nor berry might be compared to the maiestie of the mault .
1603		P. Holland [trans.] Plutarch 685: [I]f they cannot meet with the liquor of the grape, use a counterfet wine or barley broth, called beere & ale, or els a certeine drinke made of apples, named cydres .
a.1616		F. Beaumont Answer of Ale to the Challenge of Sack in Chalmers Eng. Poets (1810) VI 208/2: Ale’s the true liquor of life / Men liv’d long in health / [...] Whilst barley-broth was rife.
1637		‘Round, Boys, Indeed’ in Rollins Pepysian Garland (1922) 447: The tapster may not loose his share, though barley broth be nere so deare.
1648		J. Taylor Brown Dozen of Drunkards 20: [A]fter whipping and stripping, they shall have a shipping into Drunkallia, or the Isle of Gulls, for their too bold and base abusing of Sir John Barly corne, and M. Mault his bearded son, and M. Barly-broth, his brainelesse daughter.
1654		J. Mennes Recreation for ingenious head-peeces n.p.: Ale’s the true liquor of life: / Men liv'd long in health, / And preserved their wealth, / Whilst Barley-broth onely was rife.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1884		W. Black Judith Shakespeare III 133: When the barley-broth be warm enough Cicely shall bring thee out a dish of it.

barley cap (n.)

drunkeness.

1598		E. Guilpin Skialetheia (1878) 67: Some weeuil, mault-worme, barly-cap [OED].
1611		R. Cotgrave Dict. of Fr. and Eng. Tongues n.p.: Forbeu [...] pot-shotten, whose fudling or barley Cap is on.
1679		O. Heywood in Yorkshire Diaries (Surt.) II 262: He never wore a cap, unlesse it was a barley-cap [OED].

In phrases

find out where the barley grows (v.) (also know where the barley grows)

(W.I., Gren./Trin.) to be brought to one’s senses, to realize what is really going on, usu. in a warning or threatening sense.

1996

Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage.

barley n.1

SE in slang uses

In compounds

In phrases

barley n.¹