British and Australian slang simile meaning absolutely, thoroughly, completely drunk — the kind of state where you need as much help staying upright as an empty wheelbarrow does.
British and Australian slang simile meaning absolutely, thoroughly, completely drunk — the kind of state where you need as much help staying upright as an empty wheelbarrow does. The comparison to a wheelbarrow is delightfully absurd, which is entirely the point: the more ridiculous the comparison, the more vividly it conveys the scale of intoxication. It sits comfortably in a long tradition of creative British and Antipodean drunk-as comparisons, each one trying to outdo the last in comic invention.
By the time we got to the third pub, he was drunk as a wheelbarrow and barely managing to navigate the pavement.
Add your own interpretation of "drunk as a wheelbarrow".
Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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(UK, Australia, colloquial, simile) Very drunk.
An Australian and British comparative slang phrase meaning extremely drunk. The simile is vivid and humorous — parrots, when fed fermented fruit, can get visibly intoxicated, stumbling and squawking. To be "pissed as a parrot" is to be at the sloppy, barely-standing level of intoxication, well past tipsy and deep into the kind of evening you won't fully remember. A staple of Aussie and UK party vocabulary, often said with a grin rather than judgment.
A vivid Australian slang expression meaning extremely drunk — so loaded that you're as full (of alcohol) as a boot is full of water. The phrase is part of a rich Australian tradition of colourful drunk-comparisons, sitting alongside classics like 'full as a goog' (egg) and 'maggot'. It's used with affectionate exasperation or cheerful self-awareness, perfectly capturing the Australian tendency to describe heavy drinking with humorous everyday imagery.
(slang, simile) Thoroughly drunk.
(AU, simile, slang, vulgar) Very drunk.