Thirty Scottish terms for drunkenness

Our little country's reputation for drinking has a vocabulary to match. We run down some of Scotland's most popular and unusual terms for the act of drinking or being drunk itself.

A customer stocks up for Hogmanay in HJ Hildersley Licensed Grocer.

Scottish drinking slang varies from place to place, with the North-east of Scotland providing plenty of Doric terms for those “awa’ wi’ it” or “stoatin’ aboot”. Other popular terms from the area include “half-cut”, “bleezin”, to be “pie-eyed” or even to be “sloshed”.

Other terms, such as “mortal”, share their origins with that of communities in the North of England.

Keep a keen ear trained on the bar next time you go out to hear any one of these terms mentioned by drinkers.

People singing Auld Lang's Syne during New Year at the Tron, Edinburgh 1964.

Got any suggestions of your own? Let us know in the comments section.

- Blitzed

- Tanked-up

CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) held an exhibition at Leith Town Hall Edinburgh in September 1979. The Belhaven Beer exhibitor is drunk under the table.

- Oot yer tree

- Sloshed

- Boozy kind

- Minced

Two ladies enjoying a drink

- Buckled

- Foutered

- Minced

- Pished

People singing Auld Lang's Syne during New Year at the Tron, Edinburgh 1964.

- Hammered

- Howlin’

- Reekin’

- Guttered

- Oot the game

- Trollied

- Sozzled

- Minkit

- Rat-arsed

- Rubbered

- Steamboats

- Mingin’

- Slaughtered

- Plastered

- Sottered

- Tooteroo

- Wrecked

- Ruined

- Goosed

- Tramlined