Green’s Dictionary of Slang

drunk as David’s sow adj.

very drunk.

1665		‘R.M.’ Scarronides 20: Some reel’d to Bed [...] As drunk as any Davids Sows.
1672		J. Phillips Maronides (1678) VI 123: A River that will make a man / [...] / As drunks as ever Davids Sow.
1678		J. Ray Proverbs (2nd edn) 87: Proverbiall Periphrases of one drunk. He’s disguised [...] He is as drunk as Davids sow.
1727		J. Gay ‘A New Song of New Similes’ Poetical Works II (1854) 181: I drink, yet can’t forget her; / For though as drunk as David’s sow, / I love her still the better.
1738		Swift Polite Conversation 86: He came to us as drunk as David’s Sow.
1770		Gent.’s Mag. 560: As drunk as David’s Sow.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: David’s sow, as drunk as David’s sow, a common saying, which took its rise from the following circumstance: one David Lloyd, a Welchman, who kept an alehouse at Hereford, had a living sow with fix legs, which was greatly resorted to by the curious; he had also a wife much addicted to drunkenness, for which he used sometimes to give her due correction. One day David’s wife having taken a cup too much, and being fearful of the consequences, turned out the sow, and laid down to sleep herself sober, in the sty. A company coming in to see the sow, David ushered them into the stye, exclaiming, there is a sow for you! did any of you ever see such another? all the while supposing the sow had really heen there; to which some of the company, seeing the state the woman was in, replied it was the drunkenest sow they had ever beheld; whence the woman was ever after called David’s sow.
1796		Sporting Mag. Aug. VIII 253/1: For a cripple, you shall get ‘as drunk as David’s sow.’.
c.1811		‘A Leary Mot’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 78: Now this brought on a general fight, Lord, what a gallows row – / With whacks and thumps throughout the night, / till ‘drunk as David’s sow’.
1820		‘The Parson’s Clerk’ London Songster 24: And all week, I don’t know how, / At singing of glees he made a row, [...] And got as drunk as ‘Davy’s sow’.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 71: ‘Drunk as Davy’s sow;’ a heavy swinish departure of the faculties.
1823		Sussex Advertiser 30 June 3/5: I’ve seen him reel brimful of parish grog stupid and drunk as David’s female hog.
1834		Marryat Peter Simple (1911) 14: You would go, do all we could to prevent you, though you were as drunk as David’s sow.
1836		‘Drunken Ned’ in New Cockalorum Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) II 7: Well-known drunken Ned, / Who stagger’d home like David’s sow / [...] / He’s so drunk he scarce can stand.
1836		N.Y. Herald 28 Mar. 1/4: A tall, wall sided, sandy haired Yankee, as drunk as ‘Davie’s sow’.
1840		R. Barham ‘The Lord of Thoulouse’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1847) 202: He [...] gave her his word he had ne’er misbehaved so, / Had he not come home as tipsy as David’s sow.
1840		‘The St Giles’s Flash Man’ in Facetious Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 250: We both got as drunk as David[’s] sow.
1842		Flash (N.Y.) 10 July 3/4: The first object that met our gaze was the beautiful Emma Clifton, drunk as David’s sow.
1866		J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 62: He’ll be rollin’ in as drunk as Davy’s sow!
1871		Knoxville Dly Chron. (TN) 21 Jan. 3/1: He was as drunk as david’s sow. He insisted on singing the ‘Marseillaise’.
1873		J. Mair Hbk of Phrases 15: Drunk as David’s Sow.
1883		Mohave Co. MIner (Mineral Park, AZ) 22 Apr. 4/1: ‘I don’t care if a man has been as drunk as David’s sow every night’.
1884		Sporting Times 25 Oct. 2/5: Everybody is rolling on the floor as drunk as David’s son.
1890		Brenham Wkly Banner (TX) 4 Sept. 6/1: Mamie Garvey was arraigned [...] for being found lying in the street as ‘drunk as David’s sow’.
1901		Watauga Democrat (Boone, NC) 9 May 4/1: How can a man get Drunk as a fiddler? Drunk as Davy’s sow? Drunk as a lord? Drunk as blazes? Drunks as the Devil?
1906		Salt Lake Herald (UT) 30 Mar. 4/5: He is [...] drunk as David’s sow.
1922		J.B. Cabell Gallantry 135: Pawsey [...] deplored with tears the instability of a nation whose pilots were addicted to tippling. ‘Drunk as David’s sow!’ said Pawsey, ‘and ’im in the hactual presence of ’is sacred majesty!’.
1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight 225: He is as [...] drunk as David’s sow.
1947		M.A. Hall Autobiog. 64: There was a great fair, wherefore all the occupants of all the carts were drunk as David’s sow.
1979		F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 60: Drunk as David’s sow, I ambled into the saloon bar of an obscure West End pub called the Rat and Handbag.