dry drunk
n.— «He has hit upon the “dry drunk” scheme as a way to indulge his appetite without hurting his conscience. He is employed as a porter, and every night before he quits work he takes particular pains in cleaning up the wine cellar. He devotes about twenty minutes to smelling the bunghole of a barrel containing a particularly strong brand of cognac, after which he staggers homeward with all the symptoms of a regular “howling jag.”» —“A Secret Way of Getting Drunk” Arizona Republic (Phoenix) Nov. 17, 1891. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In the 15th century, the word respair meant “to have hope again.” Although this word fell out of use, it’s among dozens collected in a new book of soothing vocabulary for troubled times. Plus, baseball slang: If a batter...
Chris in Omaha, Nebraska, asks about the use of the adjective husky to describe the boys’ clothing section in a department store. This coded term refers to clothes made for heavier fellows. Husky was originally a positive term connoting the...