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Pronunciation varies by accent · noun
(historical) A bench at the front of an alehouse or inn where drinkers can sit..
VVhen the vulgar ſort / Sit on their Ale-bench, vvith their cups and kannes, / Matters of ſtate be not their common talke, / Nor pure religion by their lips prophande.
This man is for any company, and for any talk: as he talketh now with you, so will he talk when he is on the alebench ; and the more drink he hath in his crown, the more of these things he hath in his mouth.
The real facts would have been sufficient to excite uneasiness and indignation : but the real facts were lost amidst a. crowd of wild rumours which flew without ceasing from coffeehouse to coffeehouse and from alebench to alebench, and became more wonderful and terrible at every stage of the progress.
He, with others more (sitting upon their alebench and greatly abusing themselves at one Mother Larkinge's house), took upon him and was called by the name of Mr. Parson, another taking upon him and was called by the name of churchwarden, another by the name of a sworn man, another by the name of the honest men of the parish, and another by the name of an apparitor whose name was Thomas England; thus sitting, abusing themselves like drunken sots.
Use ale bench when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Ale bench means (historical) A bench at the front of an alehouse or inn where drinkers can sit..
The closest synonym depends on the sentence and intended sense.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
VVhen the vulgar ſort / Sit on their Ale-bench, vvith their cups and kannes, / Matters of ſtate be not their common talke, / Nor pure religion by their lips prophande.
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