drunk

1. adjective

he was so drunk he couldn't stand up

Syn:

intoxicated, inebriated, inebriate, impaired, drunken, tipsy, under the influence; informal plastered, smashed, bombed, sloshed, sozzled, sauced, lubricated, well-oiled, wrecked, juiced, blasted, stinko, blitzed, half-cut, fried, wasted, hopped up, gassed, polluted, pissed, tanked (up), soaked, out of one's head/skull, loaded, trashed, hammered, soused, buzzed, befuddled, besotted, pickled, pixilated, canned, cockeyed, blotto, blind drunk, roaring drunk, dead drunk, punch-drunk, ripped, stewed, tight, merry, the worse for wear, far gone, pie-eyed, in one's cups, three sheets to the wind; Brit., informal bladdered, lashed; literary crapulous

Ant:

sober

2. noun

a brilliant artist, he was also a tortured drunk

Syn:

drunkard, inebriate, drinker, tippler, imbiber, sot; heavy drinker, problem drinker, alcoholic, dipsomaniac; informal boozer, soak, lush, wino, alky, rummy, barfly; archaic toper

Ant:

teetotaler

••

drunk, blotto, drunken, inebriated, intoxicated, tight, tipsy

Anyone who is obviously or legally under the influence of alcohol is said to be drunk. Drunken means the same thing, but only drunk should be used predicatively, that is, after a linking verb (she was drunk) while drunken is more often used to modify a noun (a drunken sailor) and, in some cases, to imply habitual drinking to excess. Drunken is also used to modify nouns that do not refer to a person (a drunken celebration). To say intoxicated or inebriated is a more formal and less offensive way of calling someone drunk, with intoxicated implying that the individual is only slightly drunk, and inebriated implying drunkenness to the point of excitement or exhilaration (the streets were filled with inebriated revelers). Tight and tipsy are two of the more common slang expressions (there are literally hundreds more) meaning drunk. Like intoxicated, tipsy implies that someone is only slightly drunk, while tight implies obvious drunkenness but without any loss of muscular coordination. An elderly woman who has had one sherry too many might be described as tipsy, but someone who has been drinking all evening and is still able to stand up and give a speech might be described as tight. Either condition is preferable to being blotto, a word that means drunk to the point of incomprehensibility or unconsciousness.