drunk as Chloe, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

drunk as Chloe adj.

also tight as Chloe

[20C+ use mainly Aus; Jon Bee (1823), noted: ‘she must have been an uproarious lass’; poss. popularized in Aus. by the picture, Chloe, rejected in 1883 by the Melbourne National Gallery and bought by a well-known local hotel, where it became a point of attraction for many visitors; but note ref. in Parker’s 1789 poem to one ‘dust-cart Chloe’ as a guest at the christening – the orig. ref. may thus be to a ‘real’ person in the foregoing narrative]

very drunk.

1789		G. Parker ‘The Bunter’s Christening’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 71: And then they swill’d gin-hot, / Until blind drunk as Chloe.
1818		‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome III 169: Snoring in the arms of Joey, Calliope lay drunk as Chloe!
1821–6		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 149: Crockfort, as drunk as Chloe.
1827		Egan Anecdotes of the Turf, the Chase etc. 184: The larks did not subside until jemmy and his amiable bride were put to bed as drunk as Chloe!
1837		‘Stinking Breath’ in Ticklish Minstrel 44: One night, drunk as Chloe, he went home to rest.
1843		G.P.R. James Commission 415: By jingo, we’ll have all the parish as drunk as Chloe!
1853		Bell’s Life in Sydney 9 July 3/1: He flew to the cheering glass again for consolation, and got ‘drunk as Chloe’.
1854		G.J. Whyte-Melville General Bounce (1891) 34: The woman [...] reeling out of ‘The Feathers,’ as drunk as Chloë, to use an old Eton expression.
1862		M.W. Gordon Christopher North 115: At times I was in the same state as if I were as drunk as Chloe; and at others, sober, sad, and sunk in despair.
1875		Trollope Way We Live Now (1994) 407: He staggered out of the club yesterday morning at four o’clock as drunk as Chloe.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 118/1: Drunk as Floey (Peoples’). Who it appears was dead drunk – may be a corruption of Flora, but probably a confusion between that comparatively familiar name and ‘Chloe’. If the latter, good instance of the power Swift had to popularize. In the dean’s poems Chloe is always more or less under the influence of drink.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Oct. 16/1: Gawd blimey, Alf does like to get his old chin-whiskers waggin’! / A reel nice bloke ’e is, but, Lord, e’e’s never finished maggin’! [...] / I never seen him loaded up like you or me or Snowy; / But, all the same, old Alfie D., gets rolling tight as Chloe.
1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight.
1939		Scribner’s Mag. 430: [...] and thus be-tween them could be constructed a man wholly sober and another as drunk as Chloe.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 232/2: drunk as Chloe – very drunk.
1959		Baker Drum.
1972		B. Wannan Folklore of the Aus. Pub.
1972		A. Chipper Aussie Swearers Guide 54: If she’s always at the window when you come home drunk as Chloe [...] you’ve got a stickybeak on your hands.