Noble Experiment
noun
The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, under which the sale of alcohol was prohibited in the U.S. between 1920 and 1933, regarded as an experiment in social engineeering; prohibition under these terms.
Origin
1920s; earliest use found in The New York Times. Apparently alluding to a letter, later repeated in a speech by former U.S. President Herbert Hoover; see quot. 1928.