What is "adam's ale"

Adam \Ad"am\, n.

1. The name given in the Bible to the first man, the progenitor of the human race.

2. (As a symbol) ``Original sin;'' human frailty. And whipped the offending Adam out of him. --Shak. Adam's ale, water. [Coll.] Adam's apple.

   1. (Bot.)

      1. A species of banana ( Musa paradisiaca). It attains a height of twenty feet or more.
         --Paxton.

      2. A species of lime ( Citris limetta).

   2. The projection formed by the thyroid cartilage in the neck. It is particularly prominent in males, and is so called from a notion that it was caused by the forbidden fruit (an apple) sticking in the throat of our first parent.

      Adam's flannel (Bot.), the mullein ( Verbascum thapsus).

      Adam's needle (Bot.), the popular name of a genus ( Yucca) of liliaceous plants.

n. (context archaic humorous English) water.

Adam's ale (also referred to as Adam's wine, especially in Scotland; sometimes simply called Adam) is a colloquial epithet meaning water. It alludes to the idea that the biblical Adam had only water to drink. This inference gained popularity around the beginning of the 19th-century temperance movement.