fusel oil
fusel oil noun: a mixture of several higher-order alcohols (having more than two carbon atoms) formed as byproduct in the normal fermentation process, captured as part of the tailings in distillation. An excessive concentration, as in low-quality moonshine, causes unpleasant taste.
Noun
fusel oil (plural fusel oils)
- A mixture of several higher-order alcohols (having more than two carbon atoms) formed as byproduct in the normal fermentation process, captured as part of the tailings in distillation. An excessive concentration, as in low-quality moonshine, causes unpleasant taste.
- As for drinking, I am something of a chemist and I have yet to find a liquor that is free from traces of a number of poisons, some of them deadly, such as fusel oil, acetic acid, ethylacetate, acetaldehyde and furfurol.1959, Ian Fleming, chapter 11, in Goldfinger
- […] and many simply blamed on the Doosra's known enthusiasms for opium, ganja, and any number of local fusel oils, singly or combined, named and nameless.2006, Thomas Pynchon, “Against the Day”, in Against the Day, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 756
- Synonyms:
- fusel, fusel alcohol, fuselol, potato oil
fusel oil meaning in Tamil
fusel oil in Tamil
- பியூசல் எண்ணெய், ஃபியூசல் எண்ணெய், பியூசலெண்ணெய்
Synonyms of fusel oil
Forms of fusel oil
| plural | fusel oils |
|---|
Origin of fusel oil
Partial calque of German Fuselöl, from Fusel, referring to low-quality alcoholic beverages in general, especially to inferior wines and spirits distilled with inadequate equipment.
Questions about fusel oil
- What does fusel oil mean?
- Fusel oil means a mixture of several higher-order alcohols (having more than two carbon atoms) formed as byproduct in the normal fermentation process, captured as part of the tailings in distillation. An excessive concentration, as in low-quality moonshine, causes unpleasant taste.
- What is fusel oil in Tamil?
- Fusel oil in Tamil is பியூசல் எண்ணெய், ஃபியூசல் எண்ணெய், பியூசலெண்ணெய். See Fusel oil meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is fusel oil?
- Fusel oil is a noun.
- What is the plural of fusel oil?
- The plural of fusel oil is fusel oils.
Words near fusel oil in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fusel oil (page history and authors); fusel oil (Tamil 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.
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Cite this entry: “fusel oil.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fusel_oil. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.