vermouth

Noun

vermouth (countable and uncountable, plural vermouths)

1. A dry, or sweet apéritif wine flavored with aromatic herbs, and often used in mixed drinks.
   • He gazed around until on the lid of a spinet he spotted a promising collection of bottles, gin, whiskey, vermouth and sherry, mixed with violin bows, a flute, a toppling pile of books, six volumes of Grove's Dictionary mingled with paperback thrillers, a guitar without any strings, a pair of...1956, Delano Ames, chapter 14, in Crime out of Mind
   • Vermouth originated in the 18th century, when wine growers in the foothills of the French and Italian Alps developed a method of enhancing the taste of sour or uncompromising wines with the infusion of a variety of sweeteners, spices, herbs, roots, seeds, flowers, and peel.2014, Ray Foley, Bartending For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 116
2. A serving of vermouth.
   • As we sat over our vermuths he glorified the Company’s business, and by-and-by I expressed casually my surprise at him not going out there.1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 201