This 18th Century list of synonyms for being drunk is a true delight
In 1737 Benjamin Franklin (American polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States) published ‘The Drinker’s Dictionary’ – a list of 228 “round-about phrases” to describe drunkenness.
There is a certain poetry in some of these phrases which modern synonyms (‘shitfaced’, ‘bladdered’) seem to lack. We’ve selected some of our favourites and include them here:
1. He’s casting up his Accounts
2. Piss’d in the Brook
3. Drunk as a Wheel-Barrow
4. His Head is full of Bees
5. Has been in the Bibbing Plot
6. He sees the Bears
7.
8. He’s had a Thump over the Head with Sampson’s Jawbone
9. Cherry Merry
10. Wamble Crop’d
11. Has taken a Chirriping-Glass
12. Got Corns in his Head
13. He’s been too free with the Creature
14. Sir Richard has taken off his Considering Cap
15. He’s Chap-fallen
16. Kill’d his Dog
17. He’s a Dead Man
18.
19. He’s seen the Devil
20. He’s Eat a Toad & half for Breakfast
21. Been to France
22. As Dizzy as a Goose
23. Globular
24.Loose in the Hilts
25. Knows not the way Home
26. Jambled
27. Going to Jerusalem
28. Juicy
29.
30. He makes Indentures with his Leggs
31. He sees two Moons
32. Seen a Flock of Moons
33. Nimptopsical
34. Smelt of an Onion
35. He drank till he gave up his Half-Penny Pidgeon Ey’d
36. Been among the Philistines
37. He’s contending with Pharaoh
38. Lost his Rudder
39.
40. Been too free with Sir Richard
41. Like a Rat in Trouble
42. As Drunk as David’s Sow
43. His Skin is full
44. It is Star-light with him
45. Been too free with Sir John Strawberry
46. Double Tongu’d
47. He’s Trammel’d
48. He’s got a Piece of Bread and Cheese in his Head