brew
/bɹuː/
brew verb: to make tea or coffee by mixing tea leaves or coffee beans with hot water.
Verb
brew (third-person singular simple present brews, present participle brewing, simple past and past participle brewed)
- To make tea or coffee by mixing tea leaves or coffee beans with hot water.
- Elderly people sat indoors, in the damp. shabby houses, brewing malt coffee or weak tea and talking without animation […]1935, Christopher Isherwood, chapter 11, in Mr Norris Changes Trains, Penguin, published 1942, page 113
- To heat wine, infusing it with spices; to mull.
- Go, brew me a pottle of sack finely.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- To make a hot soup by combining ingredients and boiling them in water.
- To make beer by steeping a starch source in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast.
- To foment or prepare, as by brewing.
- Hence with thy brew’d inchantments, foul deceiver […]1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey...
- To attend to the business, or go through the processes, of brewing or making beer.
- I wash, wring, brew, bake, scour, dress meat and drink […]c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- To be in a state of preparation; to be mixing, forming, or gathering.
- There is some ill a-brewing towards my rest,c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- Of course, no one knows what kind of flu season is brewing, the perfect storm of a new strain hitting a largely unvaccinated population or a mercifully mild few months.2004 October 29, Marco R. Della Cava, “Vaccine shortage pricks tempers”, in Statesman Journal, volume 152, number 214, Salem, OR, page 2A
- To boil or seethe; to cook.
- She had one day to get up very early in the morning to brew, when the other servants said to her: 'You had better mind you don't get up too early, and you mustn't put any fire under the copper before two o'clock.'1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 6
Noun (1)
brew (plural brews)
- The mixture formed by brewing; that which is brewed; a brewage, such as tea or beer.
- Six great bottles of one of the Hong Kong brews had been brought to wash down the brandy and the fragments of rice and mee and meat-fibres that clung to the back teeth.1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 529
- A serving of beer.
- Player, give me some brew and I might just chill / But I'm the type that like to light another joint like Cypress Hill1995, “I Got 5 on It”, in Operation Stackola, performed by Luniz
- A cup of tea.
- Landlady: You're not stoppin' for a brew?
Gene Hunt: No thanks, love. Better crack on.2007 March 6, Julie Rutterford, Life on Mars, Season 2, Episode 3
- Landlady: You're not stoppin' for a brew?
- A boiled concoction or mixture of liquids and other ingredients.
- In the Middle Ages, when witchcraft and thaumaturgic practices were rampant over Europe, sorceresses did a roaring trade in magic brews designed to excite the passion or to preserve affection.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 189
Noun (2)
brew (plural brews)
- An overhanging hill or cliff.
Proper noun capitalized: Brew
Brew (plural Brews)
- A surname.
brew meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
brew in Tamil
- இறக்கு, காய்ச்சு, மது, வடி, வடிப்பு, புளிக்கவைத்தல்
brew in Urdu
- بوزہ بنانا, دم دینا, کشید کرنا, کھینچنا
brew in Bengali
- ফন্দি আঁটা, পাতা ভিজিয়ে, ফুটিয়ে পানীয় বানানো, পানা প্রস্তুত করা, ষড়্যন্ত্র করা
brew in Malayalam
- മദ്യവും മറ്റും വാറ്റുക
More languagesFewer languages
- brew in Arabic
- خَمَّرَ ḵammara
- brew in Persian
- دم کردن dam kardan, آبپز کردن âb-paz kardan
- brew in Thai
- ชง chong
Examples of brew in a sentence
- We used to brew a tonic from a particular kind of root.
- For brewing our bitters we only use pale malt, torrefied wheat, and hops.
- Her uncle had a large beer can collection showing a lot of regional brewing history.
Synonyms of brew
Forms of brew
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | brews |
| present participle | brewing |
| past participle | brewed |
| past | brewed |
| Noun | |
| plural | brews |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Brews |
Origin of brew
From Middle English brewen, from Old English brēowan, from Proto-West Germanic *breuwan, from Proto-Germanic *brewwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁-. Doublet of burn. Cognate with Dutch brouwen, German brauen, Swedish brygga, Norwegian Bokmål brygge; also Ancient Greek φρέαρ (phréar, “well”), Latin fervēre (“to be hot; to burn; to boil”), Old Irish bruth (“violent, boiling heat”), Sanskrit भुर्वन् (bhurván, “motion of water”). It may be related to English barley.
From Middle English brewe (“eyebrow”), from Old English bru (“eyebrow”). Doublet of brow.
* As an Irish surname, Anglicized from Ó Brugha (“descendant of the farmer”), from brughaire (“farmer”), from brugh (“land”) + -aire. * As a Manx surname, Anglicized from MacVriw, from breitheamh (“deemster”); see Brain. * As a German and Alemannic German surname, Americanized from Breu, Breuer.
Words formed from brew
- abrew
- as you have brewed, so you must drink
- brewable
- brewage
- brewer
- brewery
- brewhouse
- brew up
- hell-brewed
- homebrewed
- microbrewed
- misbrew
- nanobrew
- nonbrewed
- overbrew
- rebrew
- unbrewed
- underbrew
- Brew City
- brewfest
- brew-in
- brewmaster
- brewology
- brewpub
- brewsky
- brewster
- broth
- builder's brew
- cold brew
- cold brew coffee
- craft brew
- hellbrew
- homebrew
- iron brew
- macrobrew
- megabrew
- microbrew
- on the brew
- witches' brew
Phrases with brew
Words that rhyme with brew
Questions about brew
- What does brew mean?
- Brew means to make tea or coffee by mixing tea leaves or coffee beans with hot water.
- What is brew in Tamil?
- Brew in Tamil is இறக்கு, காய்ச்சு, மது. See Brew meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is brew?
- Brew can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce brew?
- Brew is pronounced /bɹuː/.
- What is the past tense of brew?
- The past tense of brew is brewed.
Words near brew in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: brew (page history and authors); Brew (page history and authors); brew (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); brew (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); brew (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); brew (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-brew.ogg.
Cite this entry: “brew.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/brew. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.