DCHP-2

half-cut half cut DCHP-2 (November 2016)

• adj. — slang

  drunk; intoxicated.

  Half-cut is an informal synonym for drunk (see the 1991 quotation). Although definitions of half-cut appear to suggest various degrees of intoxication, from 'half-drunk' (see OED-3, s.v. "half" (1d)) to 'fairly drunk' (see COD-2, s.v. "half-cut"), Canadian attestations seem to use half-cut to indicate a serious state of inebriation (see the 1979 and 2002 quotations). Although the term has been labelled as Canadian as a result of the "British connection" (Barber 2008: 238) , it is used internationally, particularly in Australia, the UK and Ireland (see Chart 1). OED-3's earliest attestation of the term (see OED-3, s.v. "half" (1d)) antedates the earliest found Canadian attestation by over 75 years (see the 1965 quotation). The term could perhaps be considered Canadian in the North American context, where it has a lower frequency, yet this evidence strikes us as too weak to label this term Canadian.
  See also COD-2, s.v. "half-cut", which is marked "Cdn& Brit.".

  • 1965  The two hosts and the guests were told by the police that they would receive their summonses in a few days. They haven't arrived yet. If they ever do, the ad man thinks he'll plead guilty. "After all, I did let this guy in who was half-cut."
  • 1979  [George Thorogood] wore on his face some variation of a chicken-thief grin and moved boistrously [sic], like the loud cad who arrives at the party very early but already half-cut, with a lampshade on his head. 
  • 1983  Few women dare to enter the church basement to sleep cheek by jowl with the men, she says: "They still have their dignity." The sleeping quarters are divided only by a refectory table. One woman, her nightgown trailing below her coat, says, "You have to be half-cut to come here." 
  • 1990  Nearly nine years ago, young and cocksure as only an average teenage male can be - and half-cut on a Friday night - he fell down a flight of stairs. 
  • 1998  Did you hear about the guy who sprinkled his lawn with booze the night before he mowed it so that in the morning it was half cut. 
  • 1999  Faced with a bunch of half-cut politicians guzzling beers and hoovering up free canapes, you'd think Shier would keep his remarks light. 
  • 2002  Frenette said she had earlier smoked a joint and later in the evening was "half-cut" on alcohol, although she wasn't staggering. 
  • 2008  Simard had consumed between 10 and 12 beers in the preceding hours and was "half-cut" at the time, according to his nephew. 
  • 2014  Dan (Ruffalo) is a record exec trying to drown out reminders of his very bad day. Half cut at a bar in the East Village, he is one of the only patrons who hears Gretta (Knightley) gamely crooning onstage, trying to drown out ambient chatter and kitchen noises. Pretty brave, actually, for a woman used to singing only for her cat.