An obsolete British slang expression for a very small bottle or a notably short measure of alcohol. The implication is that brothels (bawdy houses) were notorious for serving inadequate, watered-down, or short measures — making 'bawdy-house bottle' a shorthand for a meagre pour. Encountered in historical dictionaries of cant and slang, such as Francis Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Has no currency in modern English whatsoever.
He complained the landlord had served him no better than a bawdy-house bottle — barely enough to wet a man's whistle.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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(obsolete, slang) A very small bottle.
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