if-by-whiskey
adjEtymology
Refers to a 1952 speech by Noah S. "Soggy" Sweat Jr. during a debate on whether or not Mississippi should legalize alcoholic beverages. He prefaced his qualified agreement with each side in turn with the formula "if by whiskey you mean..." and a definition of "whiskey" crafted to support that side.
Definitions
That equivocates on an issue while appearing to affirm both sides, by asserting that each…
That equivocates on an issue while appearing to affirm both sides, by asserting that each is correct depending on which of two stated alternatives is used as the definition of a key term.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for if-by-whiskey. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA