past participle of drink, used as an adjective from mid-14c. in sense "intoxicated." In various expressions, such as "drunk as a lord" (1891); Chaucer has "dronke ... as a Mous" (c.1386); and, from 1709, "as Drunk as a Wheelbarrow." Medieval folklore distinguished four successive stages of drunkenness, based on the animals they made men resemble: sheep, lion, ape, sow. Drunk driver first recorded 1948. Drunk-tank "jail cell for drunkards" attested by 1912, American English. The noun meaning "drunken person" is from 1852; earlier this would have been a drunkard.