Strong cheap whiskey.
1837. [The Indian tribe] seldom ever passed the prairie, except to sell their skins, and purchase “red-eye.”—Yale Lit. Mag., iii. 12 (Nov.).
1851. That’s the best red eye I’ve swallered in er coon’s age.—‘Polly Peablossom’s Wedding,’ &c., p. 74.
1853. I kissed the old woman, spanked the children, threatened the niggers, promised the overseer a new covering and a jug of ‘red eye’ if all went straight, got all my fixins together, and off I sot.—S. A. Hammett (‘Philip Paxton’), ‘A Stray Yankee in Texas,’ p. 121.
1888. Corn juice, red-eye, obtained from the still of the deacon at whose house he preached.—Missouri Republican, March 8 (Farmer).
