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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.

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Etymology of 'John Barleycorn'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"John barleycorn" Quotes from Famous Books

... and Philosopher to the plebians of Keighley, and who now rejoices in the fiftieth year of your Majesty's reign that he has been blessed with good health during that long period, having had at no time occasion to call in a physician. John Barleycorn has been my medical adviser, and when I begin to review the fifty years of your most illustrious reign, from my birth, I feel grateful indeed, for great and mighty men and nations have risen and fallen; but I am proud to think that your Most Gracious ...

— Revised Edition of Poems • William Wright

... unintelligible to Novices Worldliness of the Majority Religion of the Minority. Salvationism The Difference between Atonement and Punishment Salvation at first a Class Privilege; and the Remedy Retrospective Atonement; and the Expectation of the Redeemer Completion of the Scheme by Luther and Calvin John Barleycorn Looking for the End of the World The ...

— Preface to Androcles and the Lion - On the Prospects of Christianity • George Bernard Shaw

... of Mrs. Olive Edwards, widow of "Bill Edwards," once a promising young man, later town drunkard and ne'er-do-well, dead these five years, luckily for himself and luckier—in a way—for the wife who had stuck by him while he wasted her inheritance in a losing battle with John Barleycorn. At his death the fine old Seabury place had dwindled to a lone hundred feet of land, the little house, and a mortgage on both. Olive had opened a "notion store" in her front parlor and had fought on, proudly refusing aid and trying to earn a living. She had failed. Again Phinney ...

— The Depot Master • Joseph C. Lincoln

... afterwards, and which Barry Cornwall has celebrated in immortal verse), commend me to the Archdeacon, as the Oxford scholars call it, in honor of the jovial dignitary who first taught these erudite worthies how to brew their favorite nectar. John Barleycorn has given his very heart to this admirable liquor; it is a superior kind of ale, the Prince of Ales, with a richer flavor and a mightier spirit than you can find elsewhere in this weary world. Much have we been strengthened and encouraged by the potent ...

— Our Old Home - A Series of English Sketches • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... dinner, he says. In this I believe him, as Roan Robin's ribs and coat show no marks of contradiction. However, as he will meet with no saints in the inns we frequent, and as oats are sometimes as speedily converted into ale as John Barleycorn himself, I shall keep a look-out after Master Sam. Stupid fellow! had he not abused my good nature, I might have chatted to him to keep my tongue in exercise; whereas now I must keep him ...

— Redgauntlet • Sir Walter Scott