drunkish en · ADJ
Etymology
From drunk + -ish.
Meanings
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(not-comparable) Somewhat drunk.
[…] every evening he comes precisely at a certain hour to drink beer, seasoned with a little tobacco, and the company of these two women. Drinks diligently in a sipping way, says Horace; and smokes, with such dull speech as there may be,—not till he is drunk, but only perceptibly drunkish; raised into a kind of cloudy narcotic Olympus, and opaquely superior to the ills of life; in which state he walks uncomplainingly to bed.
1865, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia, Frederick the Great, Volume 5, Book 5, Chapter 1:There was more laughter—and Gerald was leading them along very ably: they were drunkish and amenable, even gullible, since making a speech was a kind of trick.
2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 3, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN: