Town Drunk

The town drunk (also called a tavern fool) is a stock character, almost always male, who is drunk more often than sober.

The town drunk typically dwells in a small enough town that he is the only conspicuous alcoholic. Larger cities may have more than one, but this term appears to come from around the 17th century; in the stereotype, when a city grows large enough to house a sufficient mass of town drunks, the area where they congregate becomes known as Skid Row.

Read more about Town Drunk:  Uses in Fiction, Antecedents

Famous quotes containing the words town and/or drunk:

    The time you won your town the race
    We chaired you through the market-place;
    Man and boy stood cheering by,
    And home we brought you shoulder-high.
    —A.E. (Alfred Edward)

    One year
    They sent a million here:
    Here men were drunk like water, burnt like wood.
    The fat of good
    And evil, the breast’s star of hope
    Were rendered into soap.
    Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)