drunk as a lord
Preserved but no longer current.
In the late 18th century and early 19th the habit of gross drinking was at its height and a man of fashion was judged — or prided himself — on the number of bottles of port he could drink at a sitting. Few dinners ended without placing the guests under the table in a hopeless state of intoxication; hence the expression.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “drunk as a lord” mean?
In the late 18th century and early 19th the habit of gross drinking was at its height and a man of fashion was judged — or prided himself — on the number of bottles of port he could drink at a sitting. Few dinners ended without placing the guests under the table in a hopeless state of intoxication; hence the expression.
Is “drunk as a lord” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.