mescal

noun

1. an intoxicating beverage distilled from the fermented juice of certain species of agave.
2. any agave yielding this spirit.
3. Also called peyote. either of two species of spineless, dome-shaped cactus, Lophophora williamsii or L. diffusa, of Texas and northern Mexico, yielding the hallucinogen peyote.

noun

1. Also called: peyote a spineless globe-shaped cactus, Lophophora williamsii, of Mexico and the southwestern US. Its button-like tubercles (mescal buttons) contain mescaline and are chewed by certain Indian tribes for their hallucinogenic effects
2. a colourless alcoholic spirit distilled from the fermented juice of certain agave plants

n.“plant of the genus Agave,” found in deserts of Mexico and southwestern U.S., especially the American aloe, or maguey plant, 1702, from Mexican Spanish, from Nahuatl (Aztec) mexcalli “fermented drink made from agave,” from metl “agave” + ixcalli “stew.” Meaning “intoxicating liquor from fermented juice of the agave” is attested in English from 1828. Also the name of a small desert cactus (peyote) found in northern Mexico and southern Texas (1885).