Dictionary

tired and emotional en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

First used by the British satirical magazine Private Eye in 1967, in a spoof diplomatic memo to describe the state of cabinet minister George Brown. It is now used as a stock phrase and euphemism to avoid litigation for libel, and the phrase has spread well beyond the magazine.

Meanings

1. (UK, euphemistic, humorous, idiomatic) Drunk.
   • In 2008, after what you imagine was a tired and emotional dinner, the novelist Michel Houellebecq and the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy determined to start writing to each other about the things that kept them awake at nights. 2011 December 8, Tim Adams, “Public Enemies by Michel Houellebecq and Bernard-Henri Lévy – review”, in The Guardian:
   • There's nothing like a singalong with tired and emotional Lib Dems [headline] 2017 September 22, John Crace, “There's nothing like a singalong with tired and emotional Lib Dems”, in The Guardian:
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see tired, emotional.
   • Andy Murray was tired and emotional – in the old fashioned sense – after becoming the first player in the history of tennis at the Olympics to win back-to-back gold medals in Rio on Sunday night. 2016 August 15, Kevin Mitchell, “No respite for drained Andy Murray after claiming historic Olympic tennis gold”, in The Guardian, retrieved 05 Aug 2021:

Forms

Synonyms

lubed up · out of sight · feeling no pain · adrip · worse for wear · tuned · inebriate · crocked · inter pocula · have the sun in one's eyes · stinko · bingoed · befuddled · lathered · smashed · overrefreshed · jaked · canned · pickled · parlatic · blue · mad with it · corned · dead drunk · three sheets to the wind · loose · stotious · besotted · a sheet in the wind's eye · bladdered · inebriated · whittled · wobbly · tight · a sheet in the wind · bottled · clobbered · fuckfaced · high as a kite · liquory · strut · blind · tanked · shicker · beliquored · slizzard · tight as a tick · ebriose · soused · how came you so · mabok · groggy · aled up · inebrious · sloppy drunk · bungfu · muggy · blasted · have drink taken · snozzled · tipsy · woozy · fuzzy-minded · cockeyed · ripped · zonked · schloshed · lubed · blewed · cup-shotten · ginned · temulentive · trashed · monged · rolling · Brahms · cut · skunked · plowed · looped · fresh · overcome · wazzocked · drunk as a piper · fershnickered · scuttered · ploughed · out of one's head · pixilated · twisted · high · half polluted · full · gesuip · sodden · spanceled · cunted · toping · tanked up · stoned · shitty · fuddled · lushed · blocked · hooched up · sprung · disguised · sozzly · slarmied · potshot · rubbered · snockered · langered · muddled · legless · wellied · jarred · Oliver Twist · juiced up · floored · temulent · nimptopsical · larruped · tilted · wet · razzled · squiffed · worse for liquor · on the ran tan · in liquor · in one's cups · wazzed · blind drunk · in the bag · flush · flooey · Adrian Quist · lashed · fou · shedded · scammered · pie-eyed · bibulous · stoated · newted · bedrunken · fluted · crapulous · sauced · juiced · drunked up · drunk · soaken · nappy · obfuscated · gattered · in one's altitudes · muzzy · potted · hosed · tippled · shickered · kaylied · throwed · fuzzy-headed · sozzled · blottoed · bibacious · out of it · maggot · three sheets in the wind · maudlin · Brahms and Liszt · shellacked · fap · liquored up · budgy · off one's tits · blootered · mortalled · raddled · zooted · cup-shot · munted · fried · arseholed · lubricated · burlin' · lit · ripe · in the drink · souped-up · hooted · snuffy · well-oiled · elephant's trunk · stewed · plastered · schnockered · soshed · top-heavy · flustered · fuckered up · screwed · sotted · stinking · spannered · off one's head · half seas over · fluthered · faced · lamped · hoovered · cocked · quisby · ebriated · high as a Georgia pine · elevated · mullered · binned · oiled up · sloshed · blitzed · bollocksed · destroyed · besotten · elephant's · lash · primed · mortal · wrecked · impaired · kettled · out of one's box · steamboats · drunken · insobrietous · spiffed · MWI · hazed · gassed · twatfaced · overtaken · zotzed · bosky · pounded · groggified · kisky · insober · gee-eyed · withered · slammed · all mops and brooms · splashed · puggled · flushed · zoned · spongy · four sheets in the wind · sauced up · loaded · toasted · langers · hog-whimpering · stonkered · mashed · bevvied · sewed up · messed up · Oliver · Mozart and Liszt · maggoted · swacked · glorious · hammered · honkers · sottish · top-heavy with drink · half cut · ratfaced · medicated · bombed · paralytic · oiled · loopy · gished · out of one's face · obliviated · frosted · boozy · ossified · off one's box · polluted · snookered · tired and emotional · bungalowed · wastey · zorched · half lit