Definition
Any beverage or liquid capable of producing intoxication when consumed — that is, capable of impairing the faculties or producing drunkenness in a person who drinks it in sufficient quantity. The phrase is a legal term of art used to define the class of substances subject to licensing requirements, prohibition statutes, excise taxation, and criminal penalties governing manufacture, sale, transportation, or possession of alcohol-containing drinks.
The definition has two components that courts and legislatures have repeatedly examined: (1) the substance must be a liquor or liquid capable of being consumed as a beverage, and (2) it must be capable of producing intoxication. A liquid that is alcoholic but not fit or intended for use as a beverage — industrial alcohol, for instance — has sometimes been treated differently, though Prohibition-era statutes swept broadly to close this gap. Conversely, fermented or malt preparations with very low alcohol content have sometimes been litigated as to whether they cross the threshold of "intoxicating."
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Intoxicating liquor" is not a phrase in active common use today; the component term "liquor" generally refers informally to distilled spirits (as opposed to beer or wine), and "intoxicating" simply means capable of causing intoxication or drunkenness.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Webster's defines "liquor" broadly as "any liquid substance," and more specifically as "a solution of a medicinal substance in water," or "alcoholic or spirituous fluid." The 1913 entry reflects the transitional moment just before Prohibition hardened the legal definition.
The gap between common and legal meaning is significant in two directions. Colloquially, "liquor" often means hard spirits only — not beer, wine, or fermented cider. Legally, the phrase "intoxicating liquor" in regulatory and criminal statutes has typically been defined broadly to include all alcoholic beverages capable of producing intoxication, regardless of the method of production or the percentage of alcohol. A researcher who reads a historical statute or case using the phrase should not assume it is limited to distilled spirits.
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Common Confusion
INTOXICATING LIQUOR vs. SPIRITUOUS LIQUOR vs. MALT LIQUOR: These phrases appear in overlapping but distinct regulatory contexts. "Spirituous liquor" historically referred specifically to distilled alcohol. "Malt liquor" referred to fermented grain-based beverages. "Intoxicating liquor" was the broadest category, used in prohibition and licensing laws to capture all three. Some state licensing codes continue to use all three as distinct regulatory categories with different licensing tiers. A researcher working in state alcohol regulatory materials must determine which phrase a statute uses and whether it incorporates or excludes the others.
INTOXICATING LIQUOR vs. INTOXICATION: These are related but separate legal concepts. "Intoxicating liquor" is a classification of substance; "intoxication" is a condition of the person. Criminal and civil liability often turns on proof of the condition, not merely on the presence of the substance.
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Why It Matters in Research
This term is one of the most legally unstable in the corpus because its operative definition changed dramatically and repeatedly across a roughly sixty-year period (1880s–1940s), and because it was defined by statute in ways that explicitly overrode common usage.
Pre-Prohibition state cases: Before 1920, whether a particular beverage qualified as "intoxicating liquor" under state temperance or licensing statutes was a live factual and legal question. Courts across different states reached different conclusions about beer, cider, and low-alcohol preparations. Research in this period requires attention to the specific state statute's definition, not a general understanding of the phrase.
The National Prohibition Act (Volstead Act, 1919): Bouvier's excerpt captures the operative federal definition, which was deliberately expansive — covering alcohol, brandy, whisky, rum, gin, beer, ale, porter, wine, and "any spirituous, vinous, malt, or fermented liquor, liquids, and compounds, whether medicated, proprietary, patented, or not, and by whatever name." This definition was crafted to prevent evasion through relabeling or reformulation. Cases interpreting the Volstead Act turned heavily on this statutory language; the common understanding of the phrase is largely irrelevant in that period.
Post-Prohibition (post-1933): After repeal, regulation reverted to the states. State alcohol beverage control (ABC) statutes use varying definitions. Some states revived older "intoxicating liquor" language; others adopted new terminology. Researchers comparing state licensing cases across time must verify which statutory definition was in force.
Criminal and tort contexts: The phrase appears in DUI/DWI statutes (often alongside "controlled substances"), dram shop liability law, and public intoxication ordinances. In dram shop and social host liability cases, whether the substance served qualified as "intoxicating liquor" under the applicable statute can be a threshold question. Do not assume the phrase carries the same scope across criminal and civil regulatory contexts even within the same jurisdiction.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) provides the core pre-Prohibition formulation: any liquor used as a beverage which, when so used, is capable of producing intoxication. This definition centers the inquiry on functional capacity — the substance must be usable as a beverage and must be capable of causing intoxication. Black's formulation reflects the case law of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in which courts frequently had to decide whether particular beverages (including patent medicines containing alcohol) fell within temperance statutes.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, in its entry tracking the National Prohibition Act of 1919, moves away from the functional test toward an enumerated-plus-catchall structure. The Volstead Act definition is notable for its explicit inclusion of medicated and proprietary compounds "by whatever name" — a direct legislative response to anticipated evasion. Bouvier's entry is valuable precisely because it preserves this statutory text, which controlled a decade of federal litigation.
Neither dictionary addresses post-Prohibition state regulatory variation, which is the most practically relevant context for modern researchers. Both are essentially silent on dram shop liability and social host liability applications of the phrase, which developed primarily after the mid-twentieth century.
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Jurisdictional Note
State alcohol regulation is exclusively state-law territory after Prohibition's repeal. Some states define "intoxicating liquor" by alcohol content (commonly 0.5% or above), others by named beverage categories, and others by a combination. A beverage that qualifies as "intoxicating liquor" in one state's dram shop statute may fall outside another state's definition. Federal law currently uses the phrase primarily in the context of importation, taxation, and specific regulatory programs, not as a general criminal prohibition.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia — Public Intoxication
The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia — Intoxication: Voluntary and Involuntary
The Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia — Contracts: Capacity to Contract (Minors, Mental Incapacity, Intoxication)
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