tired and emotional

English

Etymology

First used by the British satirical magazine Private Eye in 1967, in a spoof diplomatic memo to describe the state of cabinet minister George Brown. It is now used as a stock phrase and euphemism to avoid litigation for libel, and the phrase has spread well beyond the magazine.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

tired and emotional (comparative more tired and emotional, superlative most tired and emotional)

1. (British, humorous, idiomatic, euphemistic) Drunk.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:drunk

   • 2011 December 8, Tim Adams, “Public Enemies by Michel Houellebecq and Bernard-Henri Lévy – review”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     In 2008, after what you imagine was a tired and emotional dinner, the novelist Michel Houellebecq and the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy determined to start writing to each other about the things that kept them awake at nights.

   • 2017 September 22, John Crace, “There's nothing like a singalong with tired and emotional Lib Dems”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     There's nothing like a singalong with tired and emotional Lib Dems [headline]

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see tired,‎ emotional.
   • 2016 August 15, Kevin Mitchell, “No respite for drained Andy Murray after claiming historic Olympic tennis gold”, in The Guardian‎^[3], retrieved 2021-08-05:

     Andy Murray was tired and emotional – in the old fashioned sense – after becoming the first player in the history of tennis at the Olympics to win back-to-back gold medals in Rio on Sunday night.