Drunk"en*ness, n. 1.
The state of being drunken with, or as with, alcoholic liquor;
intoxication; inebriety; -- used of the casual state or the
habit.
The Lacedemonians trained up their children to hate
drunkenness by bringing a drunken man into their
company.
I. Watts.
2. Disorder of the faculties, resembling
intoxication by liquors; inflammation; frenzy; rage.
Passion is the drunkenness of the
mind.
South.
Syn. -- Intoxication; inebriation; inebriety. --
Drunkenness, Intoxication, Inebriation.
Drunkenness refers more to the habit; intoxication and
inebriation, to specific acts. The first two words are
extensively used in a figurative sense; a person is
intoxicated with success, and is drunk with joy. "This
plan of empire was not taken up in the first intoxication of
unexpected success." Burke.
