Arak

Quick meaning: Arak is a noun meaning A clear, unsweetened aniseed-flavoured alcoholic drink, produced and consumed primarily in the Levant.

Meaning

A clear, unsweetened aniseed-flavoured alcoholic drink, produced and consumed primarily in the Levant.

More Meanings

1. A toothbrush tree (Salvadora persica).
2. Alternative spelling of arrack (an alcoholic drink distilled from coconut palm flowers or sugar cane)

Example Sentences

They use perfume freely, paint their eyes with kohl, and are constantly polishing their teeth with twigs of green arak-wood.

My wife is Jordanian and has family who have lived and worked in Dubai and Abu Dhabi for years. During our time in the U.A.E., we ate with them, drank arak, watched them dance the dabke late into the evening.

A rite of the grape harvest in the Christian villages dotting the Lebanon mountain range[…] is the perfectly legal distillation of homemade arak. This smooth, cool, refreshing liquor, tasting of licorice with a soupçon of peppermint, remains the staple drink at Sunday lunch, an eat-till-you-drop extravaganza of small meze dishes.

In Lebanon they have arak, in Turkey raki, and they even make something similar in Saudi Arabia. This is not so surprising as the Arabs were probably the first people to distil alcohol; alcohol is an Arabic word. “Arak” means “sweat” in Arabic, and describes the distillation process rather than what happens when you drink too much.

Word Forms

• araks
• araq

Synonyms for arak

Depending on context, synonyms include arrack.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include arrack, anisette, aniseed, ouzo, pastis, airan.

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