fuddlecap
nounEtymology From fuddle (“liquor”) + cap (“head”); compare madcap.
1
Obsolete Someone who drinks alcoholic beverages too freely.
- 1666, S.W., “A Paraphrase upon the first Ode” in The Poems of Horace consisting of Odes, Satyres, and Epistles, rendred in English verse by several persons, London: Henry Brome, p. 3, The Fuddlecap, whose God’s the Vyne, Lacks not the Sun if he have Wine;
- The num’rous throng of Fuddle-Caps, that here Promiscuously before the Bar appear, On others ruine have themselves enrich’d, And with their charming Juice the World bewitch’d.1700, Edward Ward, A Journey to Hell, or, A Visit Paid to the Devil, London, Part 2, Canto 8, p. 23:
2 more examples
- […] it is a broken and witless Sentence, such as Fuddlecaps utter by halves, when the Wine’s in, and the Wit’s out.1728, Thomas Woolston, A Fourth Discourse on the Miracles of our Saviour, London: for the author, page 33:
- “[…] Here, fuddle-cap,” he continued, giving her some brandy, “drink, and then tell me the best news you have […].”1840, William Mudford, chapter 11, in Stephen Dugard, volume 1, London: R. Bentley, page 122: