verb. (common).—To drink beer.

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  1828–45.  HOOD, Miss Kilmansegg and Her Precious Leg, in Poems, i. p. 148 (ed. 1846).

        She drank nothing lower than Curaçoa,
Maraschino, or pink Noyau,
  And on principle never malted.

2

  1834.  MARRYAT, Jacob Faithful, xxii. Well, for my part I MALT.

3

  TO HAVE THE MALT ABOVE THE WHEAT (WATER, or MEAL), verb. phr. (Scots’ colloquial).—To be drunk. For synonyms, see DRINKS and SCREWED.

4

  1767.  RAY, Proverbs [BOHN (1893), 63]. ‘Proverbial Periphrases of one Drunk.’ The MALT IS ABOVE THE WATER.

5

  1816.  SCOTT, Old Mortality, iv. Aweel,—when the MALT BEGINS TO GET ABOON THE MEAL … then Jenny, they’re like to quarrel.

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