dry drunk

dry drunk
 n.— «A non-alcoholic drunk—a person intoxicated with his own abstiencne—was described here yesterday at a medical meeting.—Dr. Curtis T. Prout labeled such a person a “dry drunk.”—The “dry drunk” was found to have grown almost obsessed with his changed existence. The maintenances of abstinence was associated frequently with a disturbed mind. Dr. Prout pointed out that addiction was characterized by a desire “toward an object and away from it.”» —“Addictions Study Cites ‘Dry Drunk’” by Morris Kaplan New York Times Feb. 24, 1957. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

Join the discussion

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Further reading

Blessing Box (episode #1613)

Is there such a thing as a “neutral” accent, and if so what does it sound like? And that quirk in the way southern Californians talk about freeways. They’ll say things like take the 405 and get on the 8. Why the definite article...