Jason English
Ben Franklin’s 200+ Synonyms for “Drunk”
by Jason English - December 15, 2010 - 3:29 PM

Yesterday we ran a quiz titled “Monty Python Phrase or Ben Franklin Synonym for Drunk?” The quiz referred to Franklin’s lengthy list of expressions meaning “inebriated” that he first published in the Pennsylvania Gazette on January 6, 1737.

People must be tired of using the same old terms when describing their wasted friends, because we’ve received a number of requests for Franklin’s entire list. And that’s what we’re here for! So here’s The Drinkers Dictionary. If you know any new phrases you’d like to add, leave them in the comments.

A
He is Addled,
He’s casting up his Accounts,
He’s Afflicted,
He’s in his Airs.

B
He’s Biggy,
Bewitch’d,
Block and Block,
Boozy,
Bowz’d,
Been at Barbadoes,
Piss’d in the Brook,
Drunk as a Wheel-Barrow,
Burdock’d,
Buskey,
Buzzey,
Has Stole a Manchet out of the Brewer’s Basket,
His Head is full of Bees,
Has been in the Bibbing Plot,
Has drank more than he has bled,
He’s Bungey,
As Drunk as a Beggar,
He sees the Bears,
He’s kiss’d black Betty,
He’s had a Thump over the Head with Sampson’s Jawbone,
He’s Bridgey.

C
He’s Cat,
Cagrin’d,
Capable,
Cramp’d,
Cherubimical,
Cherry Merry,
Wamble Crop’d,
Crack’d,
Concern’d,
Half Way to Concord,
Has taken a Chirriping-Glass,
Got Corns in his Head,
A Cup to much,
Coguy,
Copey,
He’s heat his Copper,
He’s Crocus,
Catch’d,
He cuts his Capers,
He’s been in the Cellar,
He’s in his Cups,
Non Compos,
Cock’d,
Curv’d,
Cut,
Chipper,
Chickery,
Loaded his Cart,
He’s been too free with the Creature,
Sir Richard has taken off his Considering Cap,
He’s Chap-fallen,

D
He’s Disguiz’d,
He’s got a Dish,
Kill’d his Dog,
Took his Drops,
It is a Dark Day with him,
He’s a Dead Man,
Has Dipp’d his Bill,
He’s Dagg’d,
He’s seen the Devil,

E
He’s Prince Eugene,
Enter’d,
Wet both Eyes,
Cock Ey’d,
Got the Pole Evil,
Got a brass Eye,
Made an Example,
He’s Eat a Toad & half for Breakfast.
In his Element,

F
He’s Fishey,
Fox’d,
Fuddled,
Sore Footed,
Frozen,
Well in for’t,
Owes no Man a Farthing,
Fears no Man,
Crump Footed,
Been to France,
Flush’d,
Froze his Mouth,
Fetter’d,
Been to a Funeral,
His Flag is out,
Fuzl’d,
Spoke with his Friend,
Been at an Indian Feast.

G
He’s Glad,
Groatable,
Gold-headed,
Glaiz’d,
Generous,
Booz’d the Gage,
As Dizzy as a Goose,
Been before George,
Got the Gout,
Had a Kick in the Guts,
Been with Sir John Goa,
Been at Geneva,
Globular,
Got the Glanders.

H
Half and Half,
Hardy,
Top Heavy,
Got by the Head,
Hiddey,
Got on his little Hat,
Hammerish,
Loose in the Hilts,
Knows not the way Home,
Got the Hornson,
Haunted with Evil Spirits,
Has Taken Hippocrates grand Elixir,

I
He’s Intoxicated,
Jolly,
Jagg’d,
Jambled,
Going to Jerusalem,
Jocular,
Been to Jerico,
Juicy.

K
He’s a King,
Clips the King’s English,
Seen the French King,
The King is his Cousin,
Got Kib’d Heels,
Knapt,
Het his Kettle.

L
He’s in Liquor,
Lordly,
He makes Indentures with his Leggs,
Well to Live,
Light,
Lappy,
Limber,

M
He sees two Moons,
Merry,
Middling,
Moon-Ey’d,
Muddled,
Seen a Flock of Moons,
Maudlin,
Mountous,
Muddy,
Rais’d his Monuments,
Mellow,

N
He’s eat the Cocoa Nut,
Nimptopsical,
Got the Night Mare,

O
He’s Oil’d,
Eat Opium,
Smelt of an Onion,
Oxycrocium,
Overset,

P
He drank till he gave up his Half-Penny,
Pidgeon Ey’d,
Pungey,
Priddy,
As good conditioned as a Puppy,
Has scalt his Head Pan,
Been among the Philistines,
In his Prosperity,
He’s been among the Philippians,
He’s contending with Pharaoh,
Wasted his Paunch,
He’s Polite,
Eat a Pudding Bagg,

Q
He’s Quarrelsome,

R
He’s Rocky,
Raddled,
Rich,
Religious,
Lost his Rudder,
Ragged,
Rais’d,
Been too free with Sir Richard,
Like a Rat in Trouble.

S
He’s Stitch’d,
Seafaring,
In the Sudds,
Strong,
Been in the Sun,
As Drunk as David’s Sow,
Swampt,
His Skin is full,
He’s Steady,
He’s Stiff,
He’s burnt his Shoulder,
He’s got his Top Gallant Sails out,
Seen the yellow Star,
As Stiff as a Ring-bolt,
Half Seas over,
His Shoe pinches him,
Staggerish,
It is Star-light with him,
He carries too much Sail,
Stew’d
Stubb’d,
Soak’d,
Soft,
Been too free with Sir John Strawberry,
He’s right before the Wind with all his Studding Sails out,
Has Sold his Senses.

T
He’s Top’d,
Tongue-ty’d,
Tann’d,
Tipium Grove,
Double Tongu’d,
Topsy Turvey,
Tipsey,
Has Swallow’d a Tavern Token,
He’s Thaw’d,
He’s in a Trance,
He’s Trammel’d,

V
He makes Virginia Fence,
Valiant,
Got the Indian Vapours,

W
The Malt is above the Water,
He’s Wise,
He’s Wet,
He’s been to the Salt Water,
He’s Water-soaken,
He’s very Weary,
Out of the Way.

A note from Mr. Franklin: “The Phrases in this Dictionary are not (like most of our Terms of Art) borrow’d from Foreign Languages, neither are they collected from the Writings of the Learned in our own, but gather’d wholly from the modern Tavern-Conversation of Tiplers. I do not doubt but that there are many more in use; and I was even tempted to add a new one my self under the Letter B, to wit, Brutify’d: But upon Consideration, I fear’d being guilty of Injustice to the Brute Creation, if I represented Drunkenness as a beastly Vice, since, ’tis well-known, that the Brutes are in general a very sober sort of People.”

[Thanks to HistoryCarper.com for their Ben Franklin archives.]

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Comments (30)
  1. Pixelated

    Drunk as 400 rabbits

  2. my friends always said, “he was practicing his festivating for the Festival of Maghutenmahagghen.”

  3. It’s not new, but how about “three sheets to the wind”?

  4. I rather liked “Cherry Merry”.

  5. He is Brahms and Liszt (Cockney rhyming slang).

  6. We always say that “we’re taking it to Foggy London Town”

  7. “’Tis well-known, that the Brutes are in general a very sober sort of People.”
    Epic.

  8. …”knee walking drunk…” Doc Watson

  9. gettin’ wount ( as in wound up tighter than a banjer strang )

  10. I was praying that I’d find “shitfaced” on the list.

  11. Hehe…I was looking for “shitfaced” too! I was also disappointed that my favorite wasn’t on there: HAMMERED!

  12. Love it, thanks!

  13. Half-Snockered

  14. my aunt always used “half shot in the ass”

  15. In Maine they say plowed. Lots of plows up there.

  16. I’ve heard “drunk as a bicycle.”

  17. My father-in-law always says that someone is “drunker than Cootie Brown.” I have always wondered how drunk Cootie Brown was?

  18. Blotto!

  19. “a wonderful state of pissed bliss” or just plain ol’ “pleasantly pissed” works for me.

  20. Each of those collected phrases has a secondary or implicit meaning as to the reason ot the occasion of the “adulation” (as in -Adulation of the “grape” or “grain”- depending on which was the source). Therein the somewhat contracted “addled”. A more modern one for an unspecified drunk is,”Metabolic poison as recreational drug.”
    Some of them are celebratory, others are mourning, and others are from being gotten drunk as a prelude to some other activity, like being “shanghiaed”.

  21. Sloshed, wrecked, pissed, hammered, wasted, smashed, trashed.

  22. I was looking for 3 sheets to the wind, too.
    Some of the ones we use now, of course, might not have been used back then in good old Ben Franklin’s day.
    Great list!

  23. writers like Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald refer to being drunk as being “tight”

  24. I Kinda love (ahem)
    “Toe u from the flow up.”
    Tore up from the floor up (for those uninitiated in urban…)

  25. “He’s got the lean”

    Crump footed is def my new phrase!

  26. We used to say, “He has a look on”, or, “He’s got a horrible look”..
    Slammed.
    What happened to “all fuct-up”?
    Twisted.
    Blasted.

  27. pickled

  28. I have always used the term “ruint”….(pronounced ruunt).
    North Carolina mountain moonshine, and that full moon tonight Billy, getchee ruint for’ day come.

  29. One of his time not there–He’s in Alt/In his Altitudes. He’s shot the cat is also missing.

    There’s another one Georgette Heyer used in one of her Regency novels, but it’s evading my grasp right now.

    A modern one is On the pocelain phone to God, as is Worshipping the porcelain Buddha.

  30. What, no Plastered?

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