The phrase tired and emotional is a chiefly British euphemism for alcohol intoxication (or drunkenness). It was popularised by the British satirical magazine Private Eye in 1967 after being used in a spoof diplomatic memo to describe the state of Labour Cabinet minister George Brown, but is now used as a stock phrase. The restraints of the parliamentary language also mean it is unacceptable in the House of Commons to accuse an MP of being drunk, but one may use this or other euphemisms such as not quite himself and overwrought. The Guardian describes the phrase as having joined those "that are part of every journalist's vocabulary". Because of this widespread interpretation, one source cautions professional British journalists against its use as "even if the journalist meant it literally", it could be considered defamatory.
Famous quotes containing the words tired and, tired and/or emotional:
“I concluded that I was skilled, however poorly, at only one thing: marriage. And so I set about the business of selling myself and two children to some unsuspecting man who might think me a desirable second-hand mate, a man of good means and disposition willing to support another man’s children in some semblance of the style to which they were accustomed. My heart was not in the chase, but I was tired and there was no alternative. I could not afford freedom.”
—Barbara Howar (b. 1934)
“It is good to be tired and wearied by the futile search after the true good, that we may stretch out our arms to the Redeemer.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“The worst drugs are as bad as anybody’s told you.... It’s just a dumb trip, which I can’t condemn people if they get into it, because one gets into it for one’s own personal, social, emotional reasons. It’s something to be avoided if one can help it.”
—John Lennon (1940–1980)