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)
“Nobody can write the life of a man, but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)