JOHN BARLEYCORN • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of John Barleycorn

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

Listen

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.

See images of 'John Barleycorn'

Etymology of 'John Barleycorn'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"John barleycorn" Quotes from Famous Books

... 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

... 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

... 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