different between drunk vs screwy

English

Etymology

From Middle English drunke, drunken, ydrunke, ydrunken, from Old English druncen, ?edruncen (“drunk”), from Proto-Germanic *drunkanaz, *gadrunkanaz (“drunk; drunken”), past participle of Proto-Germanic *drinkan? (“to drink”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian dronken, West Frisian dronken, Dutch dronken, gedronken, German Low German drunken, bedrunken, German getrunken, betrunken, Swedish drucken, Icelandic drukkinn.

Pronunciation

• enPR: dr?ngk, IPA^(key): /d???k/, /d?????k/
• Rhymes: -??k

Adjective

drunk (comparative drunker, superlative drunkest)

1. Intoxicated as a result of excessive alcohol consumption, usually by drinking alcoholic beverages.
   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 557:

     So I took a great dry gourd and, cutting open the head, scooped out the inside and cleaned it; after which I gathered grapes from a vine which grew hard by and squeezed them into the gourd, till it was full of the juice. Then I stopped up the mouth and set in the sun, where I left it for some days, until it became strong wine; and every day I used to drink of it, to comfort and sustain me under my fatigues with that from froward and obstinate fiend; and as often as I drank myself drunk, I forgot my troubles and took new heart.

2. Habitually or frequently in a state of intoxication.
3. (usually followed by with or on) Elated or emboldened.

   Drunk with power he immediately ordered a management reshuffle.
4. Drenched or saturated with moisture or liquid.

Synonyms

• (intoxicated from alcohol): See Thesaurus:drunk
• (habitually of frequently intoxicated from alcohol): boozy, sottish
• (saturated with moisture): See Thesaurus:wet
• (slightly intoxicated):

tipsy, buzzed

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

drunk (plural drunks)

1. One who is intoxicated with alcohol.
2. A habitual drinker, especially one who is frequently intoxicated.

   Synonyms: alcoholic, drunkard, pisshead, piss artist, sot; see also Thesaurus:drunkard

3. A drinking-bout; a period of drunkenness.
   • 1858, "A Scarcity of Jurors—Cangemi's Third Trial," New York Times, 8 Jun., p. 4:

     Gen. G. had been on a long drunk from July last until Christmas.

4. A drunken state.
   • 2006, Patrick McCabe, Winterwood, Bloomsbury 2007, p. 10:

     Here – help yourself to another drop there, Redmond! By the time we've got a good drunk on us there'll be more crack in this valley than the night I pissed on the electric fence!

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

drunk

1. past participle of drink
2. (Southern US) simple past tense of drink

Anagrams

• Knurd, knurd

English

Etymology

screw +? -y. 1820, original meaning “tipsy, slightly drunk”; meaning “crazy, ridiculous” first recorded 1887.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sk?u?.i/
• Rhymes: -u?i

Adjective

screwy (comparative screwier or more screwy, superlative screwiest or most screwy)

1. (informal) Crazy; silly; ridiculous

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:insane
2. (archaic, informal) Tipsy; slightly drunk.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:drunk

   • 1868, Memorials of a theological college. London: Houlston & Wright. 1868. p9

     "A tipsy man," said Spearman, "is generally noisy ; and I confess I was screwy on Wednesday."

3. (archaic) Exacting; extortionate; close.
4. (archaic) Worthless.

Quotations

• 1840, Hal of the West. Brilliant run with the Puckeridge hounds. The Sporting Magazine. March, 1840. Vol XX, No 119. p383

  " I saw my hearty out of the yard, with his pink peeping out of his Macintosh, on his screwy old black horse, and I heard from my fair waiter that he had been vaunting that he would lick us all into fits."

• 1877, Edward Peacock, English Dialect Society. A glossary of words used in the wapentakes of Manley and Corringham. London: Trubner & Co. 1877. p120

  "Screwy [skroo'i], adj. mean ; stingy ; parsimonious. Alto, slightly intoxicated."

Related terms

• have a screw loose
• screwball
• screw up