Toddy

Definitions of Toddy

OED: 1. The sap obtained from the incised spathes of various species of palm, esp. Caryota urens, the wild date, the coco-nut, and the palmyra, used as a beverage in tropical countries; also, the intoxicating liquor produced by its fermentation...1611 N. DOUNTON in Purchas Pilgrims (1625) I. III. xii. §4. 298 Palmita wine, which they call Taddy... 1655 E. TERRY Voy. E. Indies 97 A very pleasant and clear liquor, called Toddie... 2. a. A beverage composed of whisky or other spirituous liquor with hot water and sugar. Often distinguished by prefixing the name of the chief ingredient, as brandy-, gin-, rum-, whisky-toddy... 1786 BURNS Holy Fair xx, The lads an' lasses, blythely bent, To mind baith saul an' body, Sit round the table, weel content, An' steer about the toddy.

Historical References

"The Edinburgh Advertiser", 7th November 1786

"To every class of my readers I beg leave to suggest a caution against the use of TODDY. I acknowledge that I have known some men who, by limiting its strength constantly, by measuring the spirit and water, and who, by drinking it only with their meals, have drank toddy for several years without suffering in any degree from it; but I have known many more who have been insensibly led from drinking toddy for their constant drink, to take drams in the morning, and have afterwards paid their lives as the price of their folly."

"Maryland Journal", 21st May 1788

"Rum, Whiskey, Brandy, Gin, Stinkibus, Bitters, Toddy, Grog, Slings and fifty other liquors all come under the denomination of spirits".

"The Times", of London, 9th April 1792

"They contrived to make him drink a good dose of toddy, to which they added a dose of bang, which soon left him in a state of insensibility."

"Memoirs of a Water Drinker", By William Dunlap, 1837

"...the enticing toddy, with ice, at one season, and smoking hot at the other, as a prelude to dinner..."

Lands of the slave and the free or Cuba The United States and Canada, By Henry A Murray, 1855

"Toddy.- 4 tumblers of water: 1 ditto, sugar: peel of 5 lemons, and dessert spoon of the juice: add a few pieces of peach and pine-apple, and some strawberries. Quarter of an hour before use, throw in 2 tumblers of old rum and a lump or two of block ice."

"The Descendants of John Whitney, Who Came from London, England, to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1635.", by Frederick Clifton Pierce, 1895

"Clubs of four would call for a "mug of toddy" to moisten their bread and cheese. The Deacon mixed it, for who could make such excellent tody as he? The large glass, holding a quart, two-thirds full of water, was well seasoned with loaf sugar, when it was filled up with "old Jamaica rum," and well mixed by an adept use of the "toddy stick," receiving its finishing touch with a sprinkling of grated nutmeg. The four drank out of the same glass, "passing it around.""