fuddlecap
English
Etymology
fuddle (“liquor”) + cap (“head”); compare madcap.
Noun
fuddlecap (plural fuddlecaps)
- (obsolete) Someone who drinks alcoholic beverages too freely.[1][2] [17th—19th centuries.]
- 1666, S.W., “A Paraphrase upon the first Ode” in The Poems of Horace consisting of Odes, Satyres, and Epistles, rendred in English verse by several persons, London: Henry Brome, p. 3,[3]
- The Fuddlecap, whose God’s the Vyne,
- Lacks not the Sun if he have Wine;
- 1700, Edward Ward, A Journey to Hell, or, A Visit Paid to the Devil, London, Part 2, Canto 8, p. 23,[4]
- The num’rous throng of Fuddle-Caps, that here
- Promiscuously before the Bar appear,
- On others ruine have themselves enrich’d,
- And with their charming Juice the World bewitch’d.
- 1728, Thomas Woolston, A Fourth Discourse on the Miracles of our Saviour, London: for the author, p. 33,[5]
- […] it is a broken and witless Sentence, such as Fuddlecaps utter by halves, when the Wine’s in, and the Wit’s out.
- 1840, William Mudford, Stephen Dugard, London: R. Bentley, Volume 1, Chapter 11, p. 122,[6]
- “ […] Here, fuddle-cap,” he continued, giving her some brandy, “drink, and then tell me the best news you have […] .”
- 1666, S.W., “A Paraphrase upon the first Ode” in The Poems of Horace consisting of Odes, Satyres, and Epistles, rendred in English verse by several persons, London: Henry Brome, p. 3,[3]
Synonyms
- bibber
- tippler
- See also Thesaurus:drunkard