brick in one's hat

== English == === Etymology === US, circa 1846. Presumably due to staggering walk when drunk; compare top-heavy with drink. === Pronunciation === === Noun === brick in one's hat (New England, obsolete, idiomatic) Drunkenness. ==== Usage notes ==== Used in various constructions, particularly “with a brick in his hat” and “to have a brick in one’s hat”, meaning “to be drunk”. ==== Synonyms ==== See Thesaurus:drunkenness ==== Related terms ==== ants in one's pants flea in one's ear frog in one's throat thorn in one's side wolf in one's stomach === References === Richard Hopwood Thornton, An American Glossary, Volume 1, 1912, p. 101 Hendrickson, Robert (2000), The Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms, Infobase Publishing, →ISBN, page 239