drunkenness
(ˈdrʌŋkənnɪs)
[f. drunken ppl. a. + -ness. See also drunkness.]
The state of being drunk; intoxication; the habit of being drunken or addicted to excessive drinking.
| c 893 K. ælfred Oros. i. vi. §1 Hi forneah mid ealle fordyde..mid druncennysse. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Luke xxi. 34 On ofer-fylle and on druncennesse [Hatton G. druncenesse]. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 37 Þe fule floddri of drunkennesse. a 1300 Cursor M. 27897 Schortly al iuels þat es Riueli becums of drunkenness [v.rr. drunkynnes, drinkynnes]. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. ix. (1495) 557 The purpur red amatistus..helpyth ayenst dronkennesse. 1555 Eden Decades 101 His noble men in their droonkennesse had so abused their toonges. 1674 R. Godfrey Inj. & Ab. Physic 71 We having drunk pretty high though not to drunkenness. 1789 Bentham Princ. Legisl. xix. §15 With what chance of success for example would a legislator go about, to extirpate drunkenness..by dint of legal punishment? 1871 G. H. Napheys Prev. & Cure Dis. ii. vii. 602 Drunkenness is frequently a disease. |
b. fig. Intoxication of the mind or spirit.
| c 1200 Ormin 14333 To ȝifenn mannkinn..gastliȝ drunkennesse. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 291 This inebriacyon or heuenly dronkennesse of the spiryte. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 733 In the drunkenness of factious animosity. 1873 Hamerton Intell. Life ii. i. (1875) 45 A divine drunkenness was given to them. |
c. Unsteadiness of the thread of a screw.
| 1786 Phil. Trans. LXXVI. 21 To free the screw from what workmen call drunkenness. Ibid., Otherwise the curved screw would be subject to..drunkenness. |