stumble-drunk

English

Alternative forms

stumbledrunk

Etymology

From stumble +‎ drunk.

Adjective

stumble-drunk (comparative more stumble-drunk, superlative most stumble-drunk)

1. So drunk that one is clumsy and stumbling.
   • 2012, Paul Doiron, Trespasser:

     In fact, patrons remembered the bar owner dragging a stumble-drunk Jefferts into the parking lot,but no one could attest to the exact reason why.

   • 2015, David Treuer, Prudence: A Novel:

     When they came back, stumble-drunk and bruised, drunk enough to piss their own beds, they teased and heckled him.

   • 2016, Raymond Avery Bartlett, Sunsets of Tulum:

     A day before he'd been stumble-drunk beside a sterile resort pool; now he was having a romantic candlelight dinner with two young twenty-somethings, one of whom was the most perfect girl he'd ever met in his life.

Noun

stumble-drunk (plural stumble-drunks)

1. One who is currently or habitually stumble-drunk.
   • 2011, James Mottram, Sundance Kids: How the Mavericks Took Back Hollywood:

     It's not like they're stumble-drunks – they're guys who drink themselves into that weird sobriety.

   • 2012, Gilbert Morris, The River Rose, page 34:

     Also, Mrs. Krause served liquor but had no telerance for stumble-drunks and certainly not mean drunks.

   • 2016, Daniel Polansky, Those Below:

     He was doing a keen enough job so far, one more stumble-drunk knocking down the wide Third Rung thoroughfare, a bit grimier than they generally got up here but not worth noticing twice.