sherbet

Noun

sherbet (countable and uncountable, plural sherbets)

1. A dessert of frozen fruit juice with a dairy product such as milk added; a sorbet with dairy ingredients.
   • Fay Li clicks her fingers, and the dessert trolley is already on its way. “Now, the lemon-and-melon sherbet, very low in calories, it cleanses the palate, ideal before coffee. [...]”2004, David Mitchell, “Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery”, in Cloud Atlas, →ISBN, page 137
2. An effervescent powder made of bicarbonate of soda, sugar and flavourings, intended to be eaten alone or mixed with water to make a drink.
3. A traditional West and South Asian sweet drink prepared from fruits or flower petals.
   • Directly they were trotted off in their little pea-green and gilt carriage, guardian negress and all, I went into the shop, about which I had all this time been loafingly prowling, and called, clapping my hands, for some violet sherbet, […]1860, Walter Thornbury, Turkish Life and Character, volume 1, page 137
   • Tea is becoming a favourite drink in Turkey, not instead of coffee, but of the sherbet or cool drinks that are handed to guests; it comes generally from Russia, and although a trifle dear on account of the carriage, is extremely good, when properly made.1895, Oswald Hutton Parry, Six Months in a Syrian Monastery [2004 reprint], page 86

   Synonyms:

   sharbat

4. (Australia, UK, slang) An alcoholic drink, especially beer.
   • All the dealers would steam into his cabin for a few sherbets after work, and to listen to his bollocks.2014, Peter Smith, Confessions of a Dice Dealer, page 105