stumble-drunk

adjective

So drunk that one is clumsy and stumbling.

Meanings

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

comparative more stumble-drunk · superlative most stumble-drunk

  1. So drunk that one is clumsy and stumbling.

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

    2015, David Treuer, Prudence: A Novel
    2 more examples

    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.

    2012, Paul Doiron, Trespasser

    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.

    2016, Raymond Avery Bartlett, Sunsets of Tulum
nounstumble-drunk (plural stumble-drunks)

plural stumble-drunks

  1. One who is currently or habitually stumble-drunk.

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

    2011, James Mottram, Sundance Kids: How the Mavericks Took Back Hollywood
    2 more examples

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

    2012, Gilbert Morris, The River Rose, page 34

    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.

    2016, Daniel Polansky, Those Below

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

stumble-drunk. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stumble-drunk

MLA

“stumble-drunk.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stumble-drunk. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “stumble-drunk,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stumble-drunk.

Source: stumble-drunk on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.