mare's teat
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.94 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see mare, teat.
noun
A variety of wine grape from the Central Asian oases with distinctively shaped, brownish-purple fruit.
Example Sentences
- "Incidentally, a famous wine grape brought in from the Silk Road, still being used to make wine in the Northwest, is called mare's teat (perhaps because of its shape); because in Chinese the same word is used for both "teat" and "milk," it is sometimes incorrectly rendered in English as "kumiss grape.""
- "They also carried the special mare's teat grapes from the oasis of Khocho (packed in ice in lead containers) and sold luxury goods from the west to the Chinese: Sassanian silverware from Persia which had a huge influence on Chinese silverwork, glass vessels and beads from Syria and Babylon, amber from the Baltic, Mediterranean coral, brass for Buddhist images, and purple woollen cloth from Rome."
- "I partied at Aksu until they began to tire of me and started asking whether I wouldn't prefer to pay for my mare's teat grape wine."
- "“I have not tasted mare's teat wine in more than two years,” he said. “I should be honoured to be your guest. Shall we invite the prefect to join us?”"
- "'Excellent!' he exclaimed. 'The finest sweet wine, made from the best mare's teat grapes in Kocho - a valued ally in these troubled times.'"