half seas over

English

Pronunciation

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Adjective

half seas over (not comparable)

(slang) Partly drunk, or, possibly in meiosis, very drunk.
- 1830, Richard Warner, “chapter XIII”, in Literary Recollections, volume II, London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, OCLC 6065177, page 6, footnote:
  Many of my readers will recollect the memorable night, on which William Pitt and his ingenious friend and jovial compotator, Harry Dundas, went into the House of Commons, in a condition usually described by the phrase "of being half seas over."
- 1823 Anon. The Spirit of the Public Journals for the Year MDCCCXXIII
  They strutted into the box department at the English Opera House, on the preceding night at half price, and half-seas-over — whether with cape, blackstrap, or blue ruin, did not appear. Two of them were particularly half-seas-over, viz. — Mr. Bob Dodd and Mr. Will. Wood; the other, Mr. Fred. Hughes, was but so so.

Usage notes

The phrase is used only predicatively.

Synonyms

See Thesaurus:drunk

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for half seas over in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)