like a drunken sailor



like a drunken sailor

With no restraint. A merchant seaman on shore leave with months' worth of pay in his pocket tended to make up for lost time in the drinking and “play-for-pay romance” departments. Fiscal restraint was out of the question. So did miners and cowboys when they too had a chance to go to town, but the image of a sailor prevailed. The sea shanty “What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor?” suggests the same idea of a jocular attitude toward an inebriated mariner.
See also: drunken, like, sailor

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
Tadeu-Portuguese
Herodion-Biblical, Biblical Latin, Biblical Greek, Ancient Greek
Sulaiman-Arabic, Indonesian, Malay
SÉAmas-Irish
Marguerite[.ma:gə'ri:t]
Elihui-LIE-hyoo (English), ee-LIE-hyoo (English)Biblical, Biblical Hebrew, English (Archaic)