Cream of the valley is a piece of obsolete British slang for gin, likely drawing on the pastoral imagery of verdant, fertile valleys as an ironic contrast to the harsh, cheap reality of the spirit being referenced.
Cream of the valley is a piece of obsolete British slang for gin, likely drawing on the pastoral imagery of verdant, fertile valleys as an ironic contrast to the harsh, cheap reality of the spirit being referenced. The term belongs to the rich 18th and 19th century vocabulary of gin in Britain, when the drink was a major social concern. Collected mainly in historical slang dictionaries, it gives a sense of the playful euphemism common in drink culture of the era.
He slipped the landlord a few pence for a glass of cream of the valley and nursed it in the corner all evening.
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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) gin.
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