And she looked back at them with a benevolent compassion because they were obviously not half-seas-over with happiness.    From Wordnik.com.  [Maid in Waiting] Reference

'T wa'n't none o 'yer sober perfumes nuther, but kind o' half-seas-over all the time, an 'pooty consid'able in the wind.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 85, November, 1864] Reference

A pleasant young fellow, about half-seas-over, passing through the Strand at a late hour, was accosted by a watchman, who began with all the insolence of office to file a string of interrogatories, in the hope of being handsomly paid for his trouble.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 19, No. 530, January 21, 1832] Reference

When they understood he was safely housed at the George, they rode up to the door in a body, and expressed their satisfaction in three cheers; which were returned by the company within, as soon as they were instructed in the nature of the salute by Trunnion, who, by this time, had entered into all the jollity of his new friends, and was indeed more than half-seas-over.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle] Reference

Always sort of half-seas-over, if you see what I mean.    From Wordnik.com.  [Death of a Harbormaster]

Tom White, as usual, I am sorry to say, was half-seas-over.    From Wordnik.com.  [Follow My leader The Boys of Templeton] Reference

He was half-seas-over now: not foundered -- he'd ever a cautious hand with a bottle -- but well smothered.    From Wordnik.com.  [Harbor Tales Down North With an Appreciation by Wilfred T. Grenfell, M.D.] Reference

Meeting with nothing but the unmeaning expression of one half-seas-over, his uneasiness instantly subsided.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Two Admirals] Reference

Booth had been drunk when he chased a super from the stage; Webster made his best speeches when he was half-seas-over -- was making them at that very moment.    From Wordnik.com.  [Kennedy Square] Reference

They can be all half-seas-over when they get ashore, blind drunk by dark, and cruising out of the Golden Gate in different deep-sea ships by the next morning.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Wrecker] Reference

"As many as you please, Brown," said the middy, laughing, as he poured out cupful after cupful; "there's no fear of your getting half-seas-over on that tipple!".    From Wordnik.com.  [The Middy and the Moors An Algerine Story] Reference

That intolerable, good-for-nothing Jacques Richard (whom Dupin protects unwisely, I cannot tell why), and who was already half-seas-over, had drawn several of his comrades with him towards the.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Beleaguered City Being a Narrative of Certain Recent Events in the City of Semur, in the Department of the Haute Bourgogne. A Story of the Seen and the Unseen] Reference

She left at two in the morning, having cut her moorings, and it was none of her crew's pleasure that the engines should strike up a thundering half-seas-over chanty that echoed among the hills.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Day's Work - Volume 1] Reference

The king, after his habit, spent day after day on board; the gin proved unhappily to his taste; he brought a store of it ashore with him; and for some time the sole tyrant of the isle was half-seas-over.    From Wordnik.com.  [In the South Seas] Reference

His majesty was at least "half-seas-over," as the sailors say, and held a cup in one hand, and a large bottle in the other, with which he first helped himself, and drank to the health of all concerned, and then very generously helped each and all of the performers, some of whom, with difficulty, managed to raise the cup to their lips.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Life and Adventures of Zamba, an African Negro King; and His Experience of Slavery in South Carolina. Written by Himself. Corrected and Arranged by Peter Neilson.] Reference

Yankee-land predominating, with an equal number of half-caste females gaudily dressed in Oriental costume, the whole party by their attitudes and looks already more than half-seas-over; some shouting and singing at the top of their voices, others attempting to sing, but uttering only spasmodic sounds, as the fumes of the liquor they were pouring down their throats mounted to such brains as they might possess.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Three Commanders] Reference

Then he passes his hand over his eyes and -- as if it had some connection with his dream -- recalls the scene that night when we came up to the trenches -- "For all that," he says, in a voice weighty with slumber and reflection, "there were some half-seas-over that night!.    From Wordnik.com.  [Under Fire: the story of a squad] Reference

This gentleman, being partial to the liquor, enjoyed himself to such an extent over the unexpected treasure - trove, keeping it selfishly for his own gratification, that he was more than "half-seas-over" ere his rascally fellow cut-throats had begun their pork feast; so, he was equally disinclined with them for further active operations against the ship, the captain and crew of which he regarded for the moment in a most benevolent spirit on account of their having saved him the trouble of making them captive, probably at the expense of several lives on his side, by locking themselves in the cabin below of their own accord!.    From Wordnik.com.  [Afloat at Last A Sailor Boy's Log of his Life at Sea] Reference

Do you want to catch flies? or did you never see a chap half-seas-over before? ".    From Wordnik.com.  [Peter Simple; and, The Three Cutters, Vol. 1-2] Reference

"Yes," said Sealy, "I am glad he has gone and taken the judge with him; for, even though he was more than half-seas-over, he did not wish to compromise himself by listening to our conversation upon that subject.    From Wordnik.com.  [From Wealth to Poverty] Reference

She was always half-seas-over.    From Wordnik.com.  [Life at Puget Sound: With Sketches of Travel in Washington Territory, British Columbia, Oregon and California] Reference

Upon their airy confine, half-seas-over.    From Wordnik.com.  [Don Juan] Reference

Upon their airy confines, half-seas-over.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 6] Reference

"I'm not screwed at all, Billy -- not even half-seas-over.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Young Trawler] Reference

Tiddley-om-pom and the other Jigger sort of gave the half-seas-over to the Thing-a-me-bob and missed the Rum-ti-tum.    From Wordnik.com.  [Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, June 11, 1919] Reference

Captain Waverley, that I am by practice or precept an advocate of ebriety, though it may be that, in our festivity of last night, some of our friends, if not perchance altogether ebrii, or drunken, were, to say the least, ebrioli, by which the ancients designed those who were fuddled, or, as your English vernacular and metaphorical phrase goes, half-seas-over.    From Wordnik.com.  [Waverley — Volume 1] Reference

'I would not have you opine, Captain Waverley, that I am by practice or precept an advocate of ebriety, though it may be that, in our festivity of last night, some of our friends, if not perchance altogether EBRII, or drunken, were, to say the least, EBRIOLI, by which the ancients designed those who were fuddled, or, as your English vernacular and metaphorical phrase goes, half-seas-over.    From Wordnik.com.  [Waverley: or, 'Tis sixty years since] Reference

‘I would not have you opine, Captain Waverley, that I am by practice or precept an advocate of ebriety, though it may be that, in our festivity of last night, some of our friends, if not perchance altogether ebrii, or drunken, were, to say the least, ebrioli, by which the ancients designed those who were fuddled, or, as your English vernacular and metaphorical phrase goes, half-seas-over.    From Wordnik.com.  [Waverley] Reference

` ` I would not have you opine, Captain Waverley, that I am by practice or precept an advocate of ebriety, though it may be that, in our festivity of last night, some of our friends, if not perchance altogether ebrii, or drunken, were, to say the least, ebrioli, by which the ancients designed those who were fuddled, or, as your English vernacular and metaphorical phrase goes, half-seas-over.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Waverley] Reference