The term "three sheets to the wind," meaning "staggering drunk," refers to a ship whose sheets have come loose, causing the sails to flap uncontrolled and the ship to meander at the mercy of the elements. The TV show Three Sheets derives its name from the expression "Three sheets to the wind," from which it removes the latter part.
Read more about this topic: Sheet (sailing)
Famous quotes containing the words sheets and/or wind:
“The difference is wide that the sheets will not decide.”
—English proverb, collected in John Ray, English Proverbs (1670)
“Blows the wind to-day, and the sun and the rain are flying,
Blows the wind on the moors to-day and now,
Where about the graves of the martyrs the whaups are crying,
My heart remembers how!”
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)