gin blossom

Definitions

1. 1

   Vascular rosacea caused or exacerbated by excessive consumption of alcohol.

   • "Red Monkey": a Hundi slur, originally an allusion to the gin-blossom-encrusted faces of British colonial administrators
   • One man had a gin blossom nose and a huge gut, another piercing blue eyes set off by deep-set wrinkles.
   • What a gin blossom is literally — what it symbolizes, I suppose, is loss of control.
2. 2

   A female alcoholic.

   • She was an alcoholic old biddy, a "gin blossom”, who was venturing out on the streets past 10:00 PM alone because she had to get another bottle, to hold her over until morning, when she would probably go and get another bottle.
   • Now, what do you say, my little gin blossom?
   • Vera Maude had seen him in photos, the sweet little gin blossom standing next to the droopy old sourpuss.
3. 3

   A cocktail composed of gin and fruit juice (usually peach, apricot, orange, and/or lime).

   • Hastily she poured another gin blossom.
   • Reagan, perhaps because of his father's severe alcoholism, was not much of drinker, preferring a weak gin blossom at the White House when the occasion called for coctails.
   • He pressed a gin blossom in Virginia's hand as she sat in a green chair, crossed her legs, and dialed the house phone.
4. ›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer

   1. 4

      A metaphoric flower associated with heavy drinking.

      • "Well, I suppose you want a drop of gin for that thing?" she said. "Hand it over; I am very fond of flowers." "Specially gin blossoms," said the costermonger, in a rather loud whisper.
      • In the case of Mrs. Mollie Carroll and Randy Thomas, the flower of romance was a gin blossom.
      • Instead, the City of Angels, that ever-metastasizing concrete gin blossom of on-ramps and off-ramps built over prehistoric tar pits, deflowered her.

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