syllabub

Noun

syllabub (countable and uncountable, plural syllabubs)

1. A drink dating back to the 16th century consisting primarily of milk curdled with an alcoholic beverage or some acid such as lemon juice, which is usually then sweetened and spiced.
   • I shall yet think it a diminution to our happiness, to miss of half our companions and compotators of syllabub, not to have Mr. Newsham and his dogs, and his preceptors, and his dearly-beloved cousin, and his mathematics, and his Greek, and his horses.1731 August 23, Alexander Pope, William Roscoe, “Letter VIII. To John Knight, Esq.”, in The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq. […], volume IX, London: […] C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington [et al.]...
   • In the evening I ſhall hope for the honour of your Lordſhip's company to take a diſh of tea there, or a ſullabub warm from the cow.1766, George Colman, David Garrick, The Clandestine Marriage, a Comedy. […], London: […] T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, […]; R[oberts] Baldwin, […]; R. Davis, […]; and T[homas] Davies, […], →OCLC, Act...
2. A dessert pudding derived from the drink.
   • Mother by hys sonne he hathe sende me a letter / Promysynge hereafter to be to vs better / And you and I with my greate clubbe / Muste walke to him and eate a solybubbe / and we shall make merye / and synge tyrle on the berye […]c. 1537, Thersites; published in Joseph Haslewood, editor, Two Interludes: Jack Jugler and Thersytes, Kent: […] [A]t the private Press of Lee Priory; by John Warwick, 1820, OCLC 32861772, page 65
   • To make Everlasting Syllabubs. Take three pints of the thickest and sweetest cream you can get, a pint of rhenish, half a pint of sack, three lemons, near a pound of double refined sugar, beat and sift your sugar, and put it to the cream; grate off the yellow rind of three lemons, put that in, and...1800, H. Glass [Hannah Glasse], Maria Wilson, “Syllabubs, Blanc-mange, Flummery, &c.”, in The Complete Confectioner; or, Housekeeper's Guide: To a Simple and Speedy Method of Understanding the Whole...

   Synonyms:

   everlasting syllabub, solid syllabub

3. (dated, figuratively) Something lacking substance; something frothy, insubstantial, or lightweight.
   • I like Paul's plain style best. Better to feed the appetite of the hungry, than to tickle the fancies of the whimsical. This breed of preachers are apt soon to preach themselves out of breath, and come to nothing. May you and I never be the retailers of such whipt-syllabub divinity—better keep a...1831 February 4, Rowland Hill, Edwin Sidney, “Letters of Mr. Rowland Hill”, in The Life of the Rev. Rowland Hill, A.M., London: Baldwin & Cradock, […], published 1834, page 367
   • The truth is, the members indulged in too flippant a tone of discussion. The papers read every Saturday evening were characterized less by depth than buffoonery. They were all whipped syllabub. There was no investigation of first causes, first principles. There was no investigation of anything at...1838 November, Edgar Allan Poe, “The Psyche Zenobia”, in The American Museum of Science, Literature, and the Arts, volume I, pages 301–317