kill-devil

• kill devil

From kill +‎ devil.

kill-devil (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Synonym of rum, an alcoholic beverage distilled from sugarcane, similar spirits.
   • 1639 September 24, John Josselyn, Journal in An Account of Two Voyages to New-England... (1673), p. 24:

     ... 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 ...

   • c. 1651, "A Briefe Description of the Island of Barbados" in Trinity College MS G4, p. 15:

     ...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.

   • 1788, Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue‎^[1], 2nd edition:

     KILL DEVIL. New ſtill-burnt rum.

   • 1807, Henry Bolingbroke, chapter XIV, in A Voyage to the Demerary‎^[2], page 291:

     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."

   • 1831, William Willis, quoting Mr. Mitton, The History of Portland, volume 1, page 39:

     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.

   • 1998, Janet Mary Tomson, Eden:

     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.