1605. Shakspeare, Lear, ii. 2. 35. Draw, you rogue; for, though it
be night, yet the moon shines; I’ll make a sop o’ th’ moonshine of
you.
Adj. (colloquial).—1. Nocturnal; (2) empty; and (3) trivial.
1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, v. 5. 42. You moonshine revellers.
Gilded moonshine, subs. phr. (old).—See quot.
1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Gilded Moonshine—sham bills of
exchange; ‘no effects.’
Moon-shiner, subs. (American).—1. See quots.
1877. N.Y. Evening Post, 16 June. Nelson County, Kentucky, is the
home of the moonshiner; that is, the manufacturer of illicit
whiskey.... The moonshiner regards the revenue officer as a being
to be extinguished, and favorable opportunity is the only thing he
asks for putting his belief into practice.
1885. Saturday Review, 7 Nov., p. 615. Old Layce, a moonshiner—that
is to say, a maker of untaxed whiskey.
1891. Daily Telegraph, 23 Mar. A desperate and fatal encounter took
place early on Saturday morning between a posse of Revenue officers
and a party of moonshiners, by which name the illicit distillers of
the mountain districts are known.