top-heavy with drink

English

Etymology

US, late 19th century. Due to staggering walk when drunk; compare brick in one's hat.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

top-heavy with drink (comparative more top-heavy with drink, superlative most top-heavy with drink)

1. (idiomatic, rare) drunk
   • 1893, John Stephen Farmer, Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present: Vol. III—Fla. to Hyps.,‎^[1], page 278:

     To have a brick in one’s hat, verb. phr. (American).—To be top-heavy with drink. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

   • 1910, Avery N. Beebe, “Enforced Sobriety”, in The World To-day, volume 19, page 1164:

     Imagine yourself about to embark on the New York Limited Express for the eastern metropolis; the train made up of ten Pullman passenger, two baggage and one express cars; with an engineer top-heavy with drink, a conductor braced up to a degree of conviviality, the train-dispatchers along the line overworked and sleepy.

   • 1995 December 11, The New Yorker, page 110:

     Her sister, Sadie, on the other hand, is top-heavy with drink, drugs, and a serious overdose of eyeshadow. She has hopes of following — or staggering — in the footsteps of her sister.

   • 2007, John Chilton, Hot Jazz, Warm Feet,‎^[2], page 124:

     …including the climactic moment at the conclusion of the recording when George stepped forward (in the tradition of La Scala, Milan) to receive a bouquet but fell into the audience and was too top-heavy with drink to get back on-stage.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:drunk