be the worse for drink

be the worse for drink (third-person singular simple present is the worse for drink, present participle being the worse for drink, simple past was the worse for drink, past participle been the worse for drink)

1. To be drunk.
   • 1950 January, David L. Smith, “A Runaway at Beattock”, in Railway Magazine, page 53:

     Driver James Mitchell was the worse for drink. When he took duty at Carlisle on the previous evening, he was smelling of whisky; there were signs of drink on him at Beattock, and when they left Carstairs on the return journey, he was worse.

• “the worse for drink”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “the worse for drink”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.