hot coppers pl (plural only)
- (obsolete) A hangover.
1892, Harold Brodrick, The Son of Man, volume 2, page 40:[…] gets drunk, he wakes up in the morning with a bad headache or with what, in the colonies, are called "hot coppers."
1901, William Henley, Sandwich Man:The drunkard’s mouth a-wash for something drinkable,
The drunkard’s eye alert for casual toppers,
The drunkard’s neck stooped to a lot scarce thinkable,
A living, crawling blazoning of Hot-Coppers […]
1913, Wine and Spirit News and Australian Vigneron, volume 24, page 206:In those days the doctor was often half-seas over when he attended his drunken patient; the parson was often drunk in the pulpit; judge, counsel and attorneys pursued their avocation in court in a prevailing atmosphere of hot coppers.