tired and emotional
English
editEtymology
editFirst used by the British satirical magazine Private Eye in 1967, in a spoof diplomatic memo to describe the state of cabinet minister George Brown. It is now used as a stock phrase and euphemism to avoid litigation for libel, and the phrase has spread well beyond the magazine.
Pronunciation
editAudio (General Australian): (file)
Adjective
edittired and emotional (comparative more tired and emotional, superlative most tired and emotional)
- (British, humorous, idiomatic, euphemistic) Drunk.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:drunk
- 2011 December 8, Tim Adams, “Public Enemies by Michel Houellebecq and Bernard-Henri Lévy – review”, in The Guardian[1]:
- In 2008, after what you imagine was a tired and emotional dinner, the novelist Michel Houellebecq and the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy determined to start writing to each other about the things that kept them awake at nights.
- 2017 September 22, John Crace, “There's nothing like a singalong with tired and emotional Lib Dems”, in The Guardian[2]:
- There's nothing like a singalong with tired and emotional Lib Dems [headline]
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see tired, emotional.
- 2016 August 15, Kevin Mitchell, “No respite for drained Andy Murray after claiming historic Olympic tennis gold”, in The Guardian[3], retrieved 2021-08-05:
- Andy Murray was tired and emotional – in the old fashioned sense – after becoming the first player in the history of tennis at the Olympics to win back-to-back gold medals in Rio on Sunday night.