brick in one's hat
English
Etymology
US, circa 1846.[1] Presumably due to staggering walk when drunk; compare top-heavy with drink.[2]
Pronunciation
Audio (AU): (file)
Noun
- (New England, obsolete, idiomatic) Drunkenness.
- 1846 November, “Magnelia Pedestria; or, Leaves from a Pedestrian’s Note Book”, in The Yale Literary Magazine, volume 12, number 1, page 33:
- Seated at the same table with our Mr.—, was a gentleman, who, to use the current phrase, ‘had a brick in his hat.’
- 1849, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Kavanagh, pages 177–178:
- Her husband had taken to the tavern, and often came home very late, “with a brick in his hat,” as Sally expressed it.
Usage notes
Used in various constructions, particularly “with a brick in his hat” and “to have a brick in one’s hat”, meaning “to be drunk”.
Synonyms
Related terms
- ants in one's pants
- flea in one's ear
- frog in one's throat
- thorn in one's side
- wolf in one's stomach