Version I 6/9/2000
USE BY COMMERCIAL ORGANIZATIONS OR SALE
ARE PROHIBITED
© All rights reserved by the Big Book Bunch, webmaster@sober.org
NOTICE This is not an official site of, nor does it represent, Alcoholics Anonymous. You may contact A.A. at Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. The BIG BOOK BUNCH We are the Big Book Bunch group of Alcoholics Anonymous. Our origins are the Students of the Big Book group, which has met in Woodland Hills, California since December of 1985. Our goals are to live the spiritual process through which sobriety is obtained and enhanced, and to publish (at no charge) our experience for other recovering alcoholics. We have absolutely no affiliation with any organization or cause other than our membership as individuals in A.A.. Our written materials are not official AA literature. They usually do, nevertheless, contain information from the Big Book (Alcoholics Anonymous) and other conference approved literature owned and published by Alcoholics Anonymous. All A.A. material used identifies the source from which it is quoted. References in our documents to Big Book content exclude its stories. Included is all material from inside the front cover through page 164, plus Appendices I (Traditions) and II (Spiritual Experience). You may reproduce materials of the Big Book Bunch, provided: a) that sources of materials (AA or the BBB) are identified, b) that no charge is made for the materials, and c) that they are not distributed by an organization or process that charges a fee. If you have corrections or improvements, please pass them on to us using the mailbox at the bottom. |
The other day we were discussing some of the words we have used to describe the state of mind or condition in which we put ourselves through use of alcohol. Our Random House Dictionary seems to have known, also, what some of these words might mean:
One of our motives in this exercise was to reflect upon the undesirability of being in the states described. While we were drinking, it felt quite natural to say, "Well, I think I'll get blotto tonight." But, blotto means drunk. Drunk means inebriated. Inebriated means confused or stupefied. Somehow, it doesn't seem quite so complimentary to say, "Well, I think I'll get myself confused tonight, maybe even stupefied." Many of these synonyms are slang—few are complimentary. They usually do not describe positive attributes of character nor desirable states of mind. What a difference the viewpoint of sobriety now makes. The treasures of yesterday are the terrors of today.
Currently, the synonyms for drunk (in bold-face) we have uncovered, and the dictionary definitions, where found, are listed below. Perhaps you wish to add to the list?
| befuddled | 1. to confuse, as with glib statements or arguments. |
| 2. to make muddled or stupidly drunk. | |
| bent | 1. curved; crooked: a bent back. |
| 2. determined; set; resolved: bent on succeeding. | |
| 3. Chiefly Brit. a. corrupt. | |
| besotted | 1. to stupefy with drink. |
| 2. to make stupid or foolish, esp. with infatuation. | |
| blacked-out | 1. a. To lose consciousness or memory temporarily: blacked out at the podium. |
| blasted | 1. blighted; ruined. |
| 2. damned; confounded. | |
| 3. Slang. drunk. | |
| blind | 3. not characterized or determined by reason or control: |
| blind chance. | 4. not based on reason or intelligence; absolute and unquestioning: blind faith. |
| 5. lacking all consciousness or awareness: a blind stupor. | |
| 6. drunk. | |
| blitzed | 6. to attack, defeat, or destroy with or as if with a blitz. |
| blotto | Slang 1. very drunk. |
| boiled-as-an-owl | Slang 1. drunk. |
| bombed | Slang 1. completely intoxicated or drugged; stoned. |
| buttered | (?) |
| canned | 4. Slang. drunk. |
| clobbered | 1. to batter severely; strike heavily. |
| 2. to defeat decisively; drub; trounce. | |
| 3. to denounce or criticize vigorously. | |
| cockeyed | 2. Slang. |
| a. .off center; tilted or slanted to one side | |
| b. foolish; absurd. | |
| c. intoxicated; drunk. | |
| crapulous | drunk |
| crocked | Slang 1. drunk. |
| cut | 50. Slang. drunk. |
| destroyed | 1. to reduce (a thing) to useless fragments or a useless form, as by smashing or burning; injure beyond repair; demolish |
| 2. to put an end to; extinguish. | |
| 3. to kill; slay. | |
| 4. to render ineffective or useless; neutralize; invalidate. | |
| 5. to defeat completely. | |
| dipso | Slang 1. a dipsomaniac; habitual drunk. |
| drunk | 1. being in a temporary state in which one's physical and mental faculties are impaired by an excess of alcoholic drink; intoxicated. |
| 2. overcome or dominated by a strong feeling or emotion: drunk with passion. | |
| 3. pertaining to or caused by intoxication or intoxicated persons. | |
| drunk-as-a-lord | (?) |
| euphoric | 1. a strong feeling of happiness, confidence, or well-being, feeling-no-pain, flying |
| 11. without being fastened to a yard, stay, or the like: a sail set flying. | |
| fried | 2. Slang.a. drunk; inebriated. b. intoxicated from drugs; high. |
| giddy | 1. affected with vertigo; dizzy. |
| 2. attended with or causing dizziness: a giddy climb. | |
| 3. frivolous and lighthearted; impulsive; flighty. | |
| groggy | 1. staggering, as from exhaustion or blows. |
| 2. dazed and weakened, as from lack of sleep. | |
| 3. Archaic. drunk; intoxicated. | |
| hammered | 2. To beat into a shape with or as if with a hammer: hammered out the dents in the fender; hammered out a contract acceptable to both sides. |
| 3. To put together, fasten, or seal, particularly with nails, by hammering. | |
| 4. To force upon by constant repetition: hammered the information into the students' heads. | |
| v. intr. 1. To deal repeated blows with or as if with a hammer; pummel: " Wind hammered at us violently in gusts " Thor Heyerdahl | |
| 2. To undergo beating in the manner of a hammer: My pulse hammered.(?) | |
| high | 14. intoxicated or euphoric under the influence of alcohol or narcotics. |
| hooched-up | |
| hung-one-on | 44. Slang. a. to become extremely drunk. |
| inebriated | 1. to make drunk; intoxicate. |
| 2. to exhilarate, confuse, or stupefy mentally or emotionally. | |
| in-one's-cups | 19. <in one's cups intoxicated; drunk. |
| intoxicated | 1. to affect temporarily with diminished physical and mental control by means of alcoholic liquor, a drug, or another substance, esp. to excite or stupefy with liquor. |
| 2. to make enthusiastic; elate strongly; exhilarate. | |
| 3. Pathol. to poison. | |
| juiced | Slang 1. intoxicated; drunk. |
| legless | Australian slang for intoxicated, drunk. (Thank you, Marcus) |
| liquored-up | 5. Informal. to furnish or ply with liquor to drink |
| 6. Informal. to drink large quantities of liquor | |
| loaded | 3. (of a word, statement, or argument) charged with emotions or associations that prevent rational or unprejudiced communication. |
| 4. Slang.a. having a great deal of money; rich b. under the influence of alcohol or drugs; intoxicated. | |
| looped | 2. Slang.a. drunk; inebriated. b. eccentric; loopy. |
| mellow | 5. pleasantly intoxicated. |
| obliterated | 1. to remove or destroy all traces of. |
| 2. to blot out or render indecipherable; efface. | |
| obliviated | 1. the state of being completely forgotten. |
| 2. the state of forgetting or of being oblivious: the oblivion of sleep. out-of-it, passed-out, <pass out to faint. | |
| pickled | 2. Slang. drunk; intoxicated. |
| pie-eyed | Slang. drunk; intoxicated. |
| pissed | Slang (vulgar); 1.angry or annoyed; 2.drunk; intoxicated. |
| plastered | Slang. 1. drunk |
| plowed | 14. < plow under. |
| a. to bury under soil by plowing. | |
| b. to force out of existence; overwhelm. Also, esp. ;Brit. <plough. | |
| plotzed | Slang 1. drunk; intoxicated. 2. exhausted; worn-out. |
| polluted | 1. made unclean or impure; contaminated; tainted. |
| 2. Slang. drunk. | |
| pot-valiant | 1. brave only as a result of being drunk. |
| ripped | Slang 1. drunk; intoxicated.2. under the influence of an illicit drug. |
| roaring | 7. very: roaring drunk. |
| sauced | Slang 1. intoxicated; drunk. |
| shickered | 1. Chiefly Australian Slang. intoxicated; drunk. |
| [1910-15; < Yiddish shiker (< Heb shikkor drunk, a drunkard) + - ED 2] | |
| shit-faced | Obscene 1. Intoxicated; drunk. |
| slopped-up | 2. to spill liquid upon. |
| 3. to feed slop to (pigs or other livestock). | |
| 6. to walk or go through mud, slush, or water. | |
| 7. to be unduly effusive; gush (usu. fol. by over). | |
| sloshed | 1. Slang. drunk. |
| smashed | 1. Slang. drunk. |
| snockered | (?) |
| sodden | 3. bloated, as the face. |
| 4. torpid or listless. | |
| soused | Slang 1 drunk; intoxicated. |
| sozzled | Slang 1. drunk; inebriated. |
| spaced | spaced'-out' adj. Slang |
| 1. dazed or stupefied by narcotic drugs. | |
| 2. dreamily or eerily out of touch with reality; disoriented, forgetful, or dazed. | |
| stewed | 1. Slang. intoxicated; drunk. |
| stiff | 18. Slang. a. a dead body; corpse.b. a formal or priggish person.c. a poor tipper; tightwad.d. a drunk. |
| stinking | 1. foul-smelling. |
| 2. Slang. very drunk; plastered. | |
| 3. contemptible; disgusting. | |
| stinko | Slang.1. drunk.2. wretched. |
| stoned | 1. drunk. |
| 2. intoxicated or dazed from drugs; high. | |
| swacked | |
| tanked | Slang 1. Often, <tanked' up'. drunk. |
| tied-one-on | 28. < tie one on Slang. to get drunk. |
| three-sheets-to-the-wind | or three sheets in the wind Informal 1. Intoxicated; drunk. [Middle English shete from Old English sc¶at(line) sheet (line) from sc¶ata corner of a sail; |
| tight | 11. Slang. drunk; tipsy. |
| tipsy | 1. slightly intoxicated. |
| 2. caused by intoxication: a tipsy lurch. | |
| 3. unsteady; tippy. | |
| toasted | 2. a person, event, etc., honored with raised glasses before dinking. |
| 3. an act or instance of thus drinking: to drink a toast to the queen. | |
| tweaked | 1. to pinch and pull with a jerk and twist: to tweak someone's ear. |
| 2. to pull or pinch the nose of, esp. gently. | |
| twisted | 10. to cause to become mentally or emotionally distorted; |
| under-the-influence | 1. Intoxicated, especially with alcohol. |
| under-the-table | 2. Into a completely intoxicated state: drank themselves under the table. |
| under-the-weather | 13. <under the weather. |
| a. not feeling well; somewhat ill. | |
| b. drunk. | |
| wasted | 1. useless; unavailing: wasted efforts. |
| 2. physically debilitated; enfeebled: the wasted bodies of the hostages. | |
| 3. Slang. overcome by the influence of alcohol or drugs. | |
| wiped-out | Slang. 1. completely exhausted.2. intoxicated; high. |
| woozy | 1. stupidly confused; muddled. |
| 2. physically unsettled, as with dizziness, faintness, or slight nausea. | |
| 3. drunken. | |
| wrecked | 4. a person of ruined health; someone in bad shape physically or mentally. |
| zoned | 15. <zone out Slang. to become inattentive or dazed. |
| zonked | 1. stupefied from or as if from alcohol or drugs; high. |
| 2. exhausted or asleep. |