DRUNK AS DAVID’S, or DAVY’S, SOW, adv. phr. (old).—Beastly drunk. [For a somewhat far-fetched derivation, see GROSE’S A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.]
c. 1720. GAY, A New Song of New Similes. Though as DRUNK AS DAVID’S SOW.
1725. N. BAILEY, trans. The Colloquies of Erasmus, p. 127. When he comes home, after I have been waiting for him till I do not know what time at night, as DRUNK AS DAVID’S SOW, he does nothing but lie snoring all night long by my side.
1836. MARRYAT, Mr. Midshipman Easy, xiv. 81. ‘Here I am with a parcel of fellows who have no respect for the articles of war, and who get as DRUNK AS DAVID’S SOW.’
