AS DRUNK AS A WHEELBARROW (or AS THE DRUM OF A WHEELBARROW), phr. (old).Very drunk indeed: see SCREWED (RAY).
1675. COTTON, Burlesque upon Burlesque: or, The Scoffer Scofft, 239.
Besides, if he such things can do, | |
When DRUNK AS DRUM, OR WHEELBARROW, | |
What would not this God of October | |
Perform, I prithee, when hes sober? |
TO GO TO HEAVEN IN A WHEELBARROW, verb. phr. (old).To go to hell. [In the painted glass at Fairford, Gloucestershire, the devil is represented as wheeling off a scolding wife in a barrow.]
d. 1655. T. ADAMS, Works, I. 144. This oppressor must needs GO TO HEAVEN! what shall hinder him? But it will be, as the by-word is, IN A WHEELBARROW; the fiends, and not the angels, will take hold on him.