ˌpot-ˈvaliant, a. (n.)
[f. pot n.1 2 b + valiant.]
Valiant or courageous through the influence of drink.
| 1641 Tatham Distracted State iii. i, You are pot-valiant, sir, it seems. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. 29 May, Like a man who has drunk himself pot-valiant. 1845 Miall in Nonconf. V. 181 As pot-valiant as our friend Pistol. |
b. as n. A pot-valiant person.
| 1903 Spectator 31 Jan. 172 The so called Irish Brigade..composed..chiefly of Continental pot-valiants. |
Hence pot-ˈvaliance, pot-ˈvaliancy, pot-ˈvaliantry = pot-valour; pot-ˈvaliantly adv., with courage induced by drunkenness.
| 1844 W. H. Maxwell Sports & Adv. Scotl. xxxiii. (1855) 264 Pot-valiantly, the militia-men determined to take the road. 1845 S. Judd Margaret iii. (1881) 410 The old man is still mercurial; but his pot-valiantry is gone. 1876 G. Meredith Beauch. Career I. i. 8 His bursts of pot-valiancy..are awful to his friends. 1884 W. E. Norris Thirlby Hall xxxii, He had worked himself up into a condition of pot-valiance. |