Meanings
- IrelandUKnot comparableslangDrunk; intoxicated.
The truth is that nobody remembered; they had all been absolutely steamboats.
2011, D. D. Johnston, Peace, Love and Petrol Bombs, AK Press, →ISBN, page 574 more examples
Joe and The Tongue especially are absolutely steamboats by the time we reach the Niccy, and the 'bouncers' – furtive damp chemistry teachers on an ego trip – turn us all sneeringly away in their clean-spitting accents:
2006, Kevin MacNeil, The Stornoway Way, Penguin UK, →ISBNSomebody absolutely steamboats he says on sweet warm wine swigged plaincover from a paper bag squats in a puddle with nothing to sell […]
2010, MacCaig Morgan Lochhead, Three Scottish Poets, Canongate Books, →ISBN, page 96After getting steamboats in the pub we would all head to the local fish-and-chip shop, where I would order a fish supper and a steak pie wrapped together. I would then place it on a wall and bash it with my fist so that pie, fish and chips all ...
2011, Colin MacFarlane, No Mean Glasgow: Revelations of a Gorbals Guy, Random House, →ISBNBy the weekend we were off it and out on the lash, living it up in the VIP section of Annabelle's nightclub and getting absolutely steamboats. There's only one thing better than a glass of Champagne – a bottle!
2016, Jules Coll, Flabyrinth: A Journey from Losing Nine Stone to Finding Myself, Gill & Macmillan Ltd, →ISBN
- pluralplural of steamboat
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
Perhaps from Steamboat Willie, rhyming slang for silly, or perhaps from a stereotype of steamboat passengers getting drunk.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
steamboats. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/steamboats
“steamboats.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/steamboats. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “steamboats,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/steamboats.
Source: steamboats on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.