four thieves' vinegar
four thieves' vinegar noun: vinegar mixed with camphor and essential oils, formerly used as medicine.
Noun
four thieves' vinegar (uncountable)
- Vinegar mixed with camphor and essential oils, formerly used as medicine.
- Synonyms:
- four thieves' oil, Marseilles vinegar, prophylactic vinegar, thieves' oil, thieves' vinegar, vinegar of the four thieves
Synonyms of four thieves' vinegar
- four thieves' oil
- Marseilles vinegar
- prophylactic vinegar
- thieves' oil
- thieves' vinegar
- vinegar of the four thieves
Origin of four thieves' vinegar
From the story that thieves, by using it, were enabled to plunder, with impunity to health, in the great plague at London. Possibly originally a corruption of "Forthave's vinegar", Richard Forthave being the publisher of an early recipe.
Questions about four thieves' vinegar
- What does four thieves' vinegar mean?
- Four thieves' vinegar means vinegar mixed with camphor and essential oils, formerly used as medicine.
- What part of speech is four thieves' vinegar?
- Four thieves' vinegar is a noun.
Words near four thieves' vinegar in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: four thieves' vinegar (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:
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