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drunk as Chloe

adj

Etymology

Possibly a reference to the Chloe mentioned in the poetry of Matthew Prior. * Australian vernacular usage (reported by Partridge and others) is influenced by, and often thought to refer to, the well-known nude painting Chloé, which was hung briefly (in 1883) at the National Gallery of Victoria, and later (from 1908) at the Young and Jacksons hotel, Melbourne.

Definitions

  1. Very drunk.

    • 1823, Drink, entry in Jon Badcock, Slang: A Dictionary of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, the Pit, or Bon-Ton, page 71, Drunk''' as Chloe; she must have been an uproarious lass.
    • Sorry to observe that Seymour had ‘been at his tricks,’ and was as drunk as Chloe ! — as the saying is ; but as to who Chloe was, my reading never informed me.
    • They were all as drunk as Chloe, and I being a little in a sympathetic condition, they took me into their confidence.

The neighborhood

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sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA