one over the eight
informal (British)

- to have one drink too many

The Cambridge Dictionary

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PHRASE ORIGIN

The first reference to “one over the eight” in print is in Fraser and Gibbons’ 'Soldier and Sailor Words and Phrases', 1925:

“One over the eight, one drink too many. Slightly intoxicated, the presumption being that an average ‘moderate’ man can safely drink eight glasses of beer.”

The theory is that the average person can drink up to eight pints (a pint is roughly equivalent to a half litre) of beer before becoming drunk.

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NO MORE MARULA MARGARITAS!

The myth of African elephants getting drunk from fermenting marula fruit has finally been put to rest by a study published in the journal 'Physiological and Biochemical Zoology'.

The story, dating back to 1839, claims that elephants become intoxicated by eating fermented fruit on the ground. However, the study found no evidence to support this phenomenon. Elephants prefer to eat marula fruit directly from the tree, rather than waiting for it to rot on the ground. Moreover, their digestive system processes food too quickly for fermentation to occur. Calculations reveal that an elephant would need to consume more than 1,400 well-fermented fruits all at once to experience intoxication.

While the myth makes for an entertaining story, it seems that the chances of spotting tipsy elephants partying under a marula tree are slim to none.

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SYNONYMS

bashed, befuddled, blitzed, blotto, bombed, boozy, buzzed, drunk as a skunk fried, glazed, hammered, hopped up, inebriated, in orbit, intoxicated, jolly, juiced, legless, lubricated, muddled, on a bender, ONE OVER THE EIGHT, pickled, pie-eyed, plastered, potted, sauced, schnockered, sloshed, smashed, soaked, soused, sozzled, stewed, tanked, three sheets to the wind, tipsy, toasted, trashed, trolleyed, under the influence (the table), walloped, wasted, woozy, zonked

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“My favourite antonym to ‘ONE OVER THE EIGHT’ is ‘as crisp as an autumn morning’.”

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