Benjamin Franklin’s Long List of Synonyms for ’Drunk‘

Founding Father Benjamin Franklin gave us many things: the lightning rod, bifocals, a musical instrument named the armonica that happened to be pretty dangerous—and more than 200 synonyms for the word drunk.

The authorship of “The Drinkers Dictionary” is debated, but Franklin published the lengthy list of expressions meaning “inebriated” in the Pennsylvania Gazette in January 1737. “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,” Franklin wrote. “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.”

Here’s an abridged list of terms from “The Drinkers Dictionary” that you might want to use the next time you’re a few sheets to the wind. (The spellings are all as they are in the original, by the way, so sic throughout.)

A

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

B

He’s Biggy
Block and Block
Bowz’d
Piss’d in the Brook
Drunk as a Wheel-Barrow
His Head is full of Bees
He’s Bungey
He sees the Bears

C

He’s Cat
Cherubimical
Cherry Merry
Wamble Crop’d
Got Corns in his Head
Loaded his Cart
He’s been too free with the Creature
Sir Richard has taken off his Considering Cap

D

He’s got a Dish
Took his Drops
It is a Dark Day with him
Has Dipp’d his Bill
He’s seen the Devil

E

He’s Prince Eugene
Wet both Eyes
Got the Pole Evil
He’s Eat a Toad & half for Breakfast

F

He’s Fishey
Owes no Man a Farthing
Crump Footed
Froze his Mouth
Been to a Funeral
His Flag is out
Fuzl’d

G

Groatable
Gold-headed
As Dizzy as a Goose
Had a Kick in the Guts
Globular
Got the Glanders

H

Top Heavy
Got on his little Hat
Hammerish
Haunted with Evil Spirits

J

Jagg’d
Jambled
Juicy

K

Clips the King’s English
Got Kib’d Heels
Het his Kettle

L

He makes Indentures with his Leggs
Lappy
Limber

M

He sees two Moons
Seen a Flock of Moons
Rais’d his Monuments

N

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

O

He’s Oil’d
Smelt of an Onion
Oxycrocium

P

Pungey
As good conditioned as a Puppy
Has scalt his Head Pan
In his Prosperity
Eat a Pudding Bagg

Q

He's Quarrelsome

R

Raddled
Lost his Rudder
Like a Rat in Trouble

S

In the Sudds
Swampt
His Skin is full
His Shoe pinches him
Staggerish
It is Star-light with him
He carries too much Sail
Stubb’d
Has Sold his Senses

T

He’s Top’d
Tongue-ty’d
Double Tongu’d
Has Swallow’d a Tavern Token
He’s Trammel’d

V

He makes Virginia Fence
Valiant

W

The Malt is above the Water
He’s been to the Salt Water
He’s Water-soaken

A version of this story ran in 2013; it has been updated for 2023.

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