Canadian Slang For Drunk (28 Examples!)

Drunkenness, in any dialect, tends to be something that attracts a good deal of slang.

Canadian slang is no different, as they have countless terms for referring to this particular state.

Today, we’re going to look at some of the most common and some of the most obscure, and do our best to explain where they came from and how they came to be.

Let’s get started.

Hosed

Starting off with one of the most commonly used in Canada and specific to the nation of Canada, we have hosed.

This one means that you are very drunk, perhaps too drunk and that it may be time for you to go to bed.

Slang terms for drunkenness can often be classified by the degree to which they imply you are drunk.

It’s not completely clear where this term originated, although there are a few theories.

One theory is that it was originally an ice hockey term, referring to how rinks would be hosed down after games.

It’s also possible it originated from the practice of siphoning gasoline from farming vehicles during the Great Depression, usually while drunk on homemade alcohol.

We just don’t know for sure.

Hoser

Following on from the last one, it’s worth mentioning that it can also be used as a noun.

Someone who is drunk is hosed, but they are a hoser if they do it a lot.

The origin is precisely the same, although both terms are used just as frequently as one another.

Pickled

Next we have “pickled”. This one is used throughout Canada to mean drunk, and the degree to which the person is drunk can vary slightly.

Generally, though, to be pickled means to be very drunk. “Did you see him last night? He was absolutely pickled!” for example.

This one naturally derives from the term pickled meaning preserved by pickling.

It has the sense that someone who gets very drunk has gone through a process, and is changed by it. It’s common in the U.S., too, though less so now than it is in Canada.

It was first attested in writing shortly before 1900.

Slopped

As you’ll see, there are a great deal of Canadian slang terms for drunk which are just many ways of saying that someone is messy or unkempt somehow.

Slopped is another of these terms, and is quite common in large parts of Canada.

Indeed, “sloppy” is also used throughout the English speaking world to mean drunk.

Sloppy has for a very long time been slang for drunk, so it could have entered Canadian slang at any time in the last century or so.

Our first written records of it in Canadian used in this way date back to the middle of the 20^th Century.

Sodden

You’re likely aware of the literal meaning of this next one, and that gives you a good idea of how it came to mean drunk.

In Canadian slang, sodden means about as drunk as you can get before you pass out.

It can also have the sense of being stupid as a result of your drunkenness.

The literal meaning of the word sodden is soaked through with liquid, so the slang is a metaphorical way of saying you are soaked through with alcohol.

Again, we don’t know for sure when this one entered Canadian slang, as it has also been a U.S. slang term for a good while.

It could have been as early as the 1850s.

Sauced

“Sauced” is another one meaning drunk in Canadian slang.

This is generally another one to mean someone is very drunk and on the point of passing out.

That said, it can also, less commonly, be used to describe the early stages of drunkenness, when you are just a little bit “sauced up” and feeling good from your first couple of drinks.

Though you might assume the meaning is related to the word “sauce”, it actually has its roots in a Germanic word of old. “Soused” means soaked in liquid, and this became “sauced” in modern English.

No doubt the word sauce helped it along, though, and certainly took on its own meaning and use.

Soused

To a lesser extent, though, soused itself is still also used.

The literal meaning is still just to soak something in liquid, but this is very rarely used outside of some specialized trades.

In Canadian slang, it means that someone is drunk, soaked in alcohol, beyond help.

As I say, this is a very old term, and in Canadian usage it stretches back to the latter half of the 19^th Century at the latest.

It could be even earlier.

Snockered

Next we have one that probably doesn’t sound like a real word—because it technically isn’t.

“Snockered” is pure slang, a made up word without any usage outside of its slang meaning.

It’s common in parts of Canada, though perhaps is becoming a bit archaic.

Slang terms for drunk like this often tend to hang around for longer even because they are just pleasing to the ear.

It’s possibly related to the word snookered, which also means drunk and derives from the table game.

When and how it took on this altered form is unclear, though. It seems to have occurred sometime in the last century, in North America and not just Canada.

Adrip

As you might expect, a great many slang terms are related to things being logged with water.

“Adrip” is another example of this.

While it does have supposedly literal meanings, it is not considered a standard term in modern English, even in Canada.

It has the sense of dripping, but more importantly, again, of something completely full of liquid to the point that it is dripping.

It was in very common use in the 19^th Century, particularly in England, and eventually spread to the U.S. where it then became Canadian slang, too.

Lit

Next we have one of the terms you might think of as being very modern, but in fact stretches quite far back in time.

“Lit” means to be drunk, particularly it means to be drunk while having a very good time at a fun party or on a great night out.

It’s used throughout Canada and the U.S.

Our earliest attested uses of the term come from the 1910s, where it first simply meant someone who was mildly intoxicated.

It’s thought that it was a reference to the way people would “light up” when they were drunk, though we’re not completely sure.

Clobbered

“Clobbered” is a great one, which very accurately describes the feeling of the day after you’ve gotten very drunk.

Clobbered is another rather universal term, heard to some degree in other English slangs as well as in Canadian. “I was absolutely clobbered last night,” for example.

We don’t know when this one was first used, but the sense was certainly originally derived from the feeling of having been “clobbered” the next day.

It’s most likely another Victorian term that made its way stateside.

Ossified

Next we have “ossified”, a slang term for drunk used in both the U.S. and Canada but which originally came to these countries from Ireland.

It’s popular throughout Canada today, and is another one generally reserved for the drunkest of the drunk.

It’s rather unclear how it took on this meaning.

It literally describes the process of turning something like cartilage into bone.

But it was passed to Canada through Irish immigrants in the 19^th and 20^th Centuries, as best we can tell.

Plowed

Many slang terms in Canada for drunk involve some kind of heavy physical process, and it’s no surprise that this snowy northern country uses the word “plowed” to mean very drunk.

Though it can have some other meanings, it’s an acceptable way to say someone is drunk.

“We went out and got plowed last night,” for example.

This is another one that originated in the U.S. and spread to Canada, where it ultimately became more common than it ever was in the States.

It’s unclear precisely when this happened, but the sense that someone who’s very drunk is “plowed” simply refers to being profoundly changed, as snow is plowed.

Buzzed

This one is a pretty specific term, used to describe a particular aspect of drunkenness.

Unlike most of the terms on this list, and indeed most slang terms for drunk generally, it doesn’t describe someone who is excessively drunk.

To be buzzed means the early stages of drunkenness, what in other vernaculars might be called “jolly” or “tipsy”. “I was pretty buzzed and having a good night early on,” for example.

We don’t know when this term came into use, though it doesn’t seem to be as recent as you might think.

It refers to the feeling that you are literally buzzing and vibrating with joy and pleasure at that stage of drunkenness.

Wasted

You’re more than likely familiar with this one no matter where you are from.

This is perhaps the quintessential North American slang term for extremely drunk, used both in the U.S. and in Canada to the same extent.

Wasted is about as drunk as you can get. “He was so wasted he passed out on the couch until the afternoon,” for example.

Wasted came to mean drunk in the 1950s, and was supposedly cemented as meaning drunk by the hippies in the 1960s.

It had the sense that you are somehow “wasting” your body with all the drink.

Shellacked

This is perhaps one of the stranger ones on the list which you may not be familiar with.

That said, it is still quite widely used in large parts of Canada to mean someone who is very drunk.

Its standard meaning denotes hair that is covered in hairspray—but in Canadian slang, for someone to be “shellacked”, they are again about as drunk as can be.

Shellac is a resin used in things like wood finishes and as an insulator.

It was first used in the 1920s to mean very drunk, and it’s thought that the idea was being drunk on something so strong it smelled like shellac.

Wrecked

Wrecked is another great one, commonly used throughout Canada and other parts of the English speaking world.

It’s another one contextualizing drunkenness as something that destroys you, to some degree. “He’s completely wrecked, someone call him a cab,” for instance.

This one appears to have been popularized quite recently.

It’s been in use, for some degree, since at least the 1990s, although probably a fair bit earlier.

But it has been popularized by the internet and meme culture, to a degree.

Screwed

Staying on the topic of euphemisms for how badly alcohol can make you behave, next we have “screwed.”

This one is not the most common on the list, but is certainly still used in Canada to indicate extreme drunkenness. “I was completely screwed this weekend,” for instance.

It originated in Britain in the 1800s, where “screwy” would be used to describe the behaviour of drunken people.

Eventually, this spread to Canada, where it still remains today in the form of screwed.

Juiced

Juiced is up next, and this is another one very commonly heard in all parts of Canada.

To be juiced is to be very drunk, but not necessarily all that drunk.

It describes, perhaps, a normal level of drunkenness, above being buzzed but below being wasted. “I’m starting to feel pretty juiced,” for example.

While we don’t know when this term first started being used, it’s a natural term to use to describe someone who is drunk.

As we’ve seen, many of the terms for drunkenness are often just standard words describing something involving liquid, like sodden or juiced in this case.

Jaked

This one might be another strange sounding one, but in large parts of Canada, if you hear that someone is “jaked”, it means that they are very drunk.

It can also mean they are very high, too, so it has the broader sense of intoxicated sometimes. “He can’t drive, he’s jaked,” for example.

Again, it’s not quite clear how this one originated, as there have been a variety of different slang meanings of this term over time.

It could relate to the sense of “satisfactory” which we find in the middle of the 20^th Century in North American dialects.

It certainly doesn’t seem to be much older than the 1930s, as a slang term.

Sotted

You may or may not be familiar with this word in some sense or another.

It is used in Canada to mean very drunk, and often it is used to mean someone who is drunk very often.

Habitually drinking alcohol makes someone sotted.

But it is more commonly used simply to describe a single state of drunkenness.

It drives from medieval Latin originally, where sottus meant a foolish person.

In Old English this became sott, and the sense of someone who is habitually drunk dates to the end of the 16^th Century.

By the middle of the last century, it had come to mean just very drunk at least in Canadian slang.

Sottish

Another variant of the term “sotted” meaning drunk is “sottish”.

This can again have the broad sense of someone who is an alcoholic, who drinks heavily, habitually.

But it also has the broader meaning of just being drunk.

It also, historically, had the meaning of someone being foolish or stupid, so it meant also someone who acts foolish as a result of drinking too much.

Souped-up

You’ve probably heard this one in some form or another no matter where in the English speaking world you are from.

It has a variety of meanings, the simplest and most common being something that is enhanced or modified for better performance, like a car.

In Canadian and U.S. slang, though, it means to be drunk.

It originated in U.S. naval slang, possibly from the supposed practice of putting alcohol into soups and broths.

We aren’t completely certain when it took on its Canadian sense, though, but it was again sometime in the 20^th Century.

Larruped

Another pretty strange one, next we have “larruped”.

This one does technically have a modern, standard meaning, but you’d be forgiven not for knowing it.

To larrup something means to beat it or thrash it, particularly with a whip.

In Canadian slang, though, to be larruped means to be very drunk. “He gets larruped off those shots every time,” for example.

Its origin is not clear.

Even etymologically, our best guess that it derives from the Dutch larpen, meaning to thresh with flails, is not definite.

It again probably came to mean drunkenness out of the sense that you feel as though you’ve been thrashed and whipped in the head the day after.

Bottled

Next we have bottled, another very common slang term in Canada meaning drunk.

This one generally is used to describe a group getting drunk together, and doesn’t necessarily specify how drunk.

However, it’s probably more than buzzed. “We all got together and got bottled on Friday,” for example.

This one too has been shared for some time between Canada and the U.S.

It seems to have originated in the latter half of the 20^th Century, as best we can tell—our oldest quotations for this sense of the term go back to the early 1970s.

Floored

Some slang terms catch on in many places independently because they are such a fitting description of a certain state.

To be floored is about the final stage of drunkenness, when you’re no longer able to stand up—and you’ve fallen to the floor.

“He’s going to be floored by 4pm if he doesn’t pace himself,” for example.

We cannot say with any precision when this term became a Canadian slang term.

It was probably sometime in the late 19^th Century, as this is when it seems to take on this sense elsewhere in the English speaking world.

Oiled

Next we have “oiled”, another slang term for drunk related to how the alcohol feels as though it permeates your whole body when you’re very drunk.

This one is used in all parts of Canada to some degree, though it may not be the most popular slang term for drunk out there. “They’re all pretty well oiled by now,” for example.

The sense is very simple. It’s a reference to being like a “well-oiled” machine, which I’m sure is an expression you’re familiar with. Machines with moving parts would need oil for lubrication.

Alcohol, in this sense, becomes the lubrication for the drunken person.

This was a 19^th Century slang term, originating in the Industrial Revolution.

Trashed

Finally, we have trashed, another bread-and-butter slang term for drunk in Canada.

Everyone in Canada will understand if not use this term to refer to being very drunk.

It’s about as common as any slang term here. “I want to get pretty trashed tonight,” for example.

This originated in America in the 1920s, somehow arising out of the Prohibition era.

It spread to Canada almost immediately and is today a staple Canadian slang term in and of itself.

Canadian slang is a rich and varied one, then, like most slang, is not short on ways to say people are drunk.

For better or worse, drunkenness and drinking culture seem as though they are going to be around for some time.

We are going to have to live with it for the time being, so there are probably always going to be more and more terms describing drunkenness for new generations.

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