💥 Strong and clear 🍷 Slightly drunk 😵 Dazed or confused

punchy

4 8.1

Slightly drunk after drinking alcohol

adjective
/ˈpʌn.tʃi/

: alegre

She was starting to get punchy after the third cocktail at the party.
getting punchy

Examples

The group became quite punchy after a few rounds of drinks and endless jokes.
Wow, must be getting punchy or something.

The Manson Brothers: Midnight Zombie Massacre (2021)
You look a little punchy.

Extreme Measures (1996)
I must be getting punchy.

Starman (1984)
I'm getting a little punchy myself.

My Bloody Valentine (1981)
Sorry, I'm a little punchy.

Blog text (13)
We giggle, punchy with exhaustion.

Fiction book (1998)
You must be punchy.

Creed III (2023)
We were all punchy.

12 Angry Men (1957)
We'd been sitting around the hotel all afternoon hoping it would stop raining so we could get out on the beach, or get out somewhere, but it didn't stop, and so that night we were sitting at the hotel bar in a booth, and we'd had just enough to drink to be a little punchy.

Fiction book (1994)

Synonyms

tipsy

vspunchy

Informal

18 4.8

A little drunk after drinking a small amount of alcohol

is the informal word for the same mild intoxication

drinky

vspunchy

1 9.9

A little drunk or likely to drink alcohol

focuses only on mild drunkenness rather than a drinking habit

Antonyms

sober

269 3.2

Not having drunk alcohol or taken drugs

How Drunk

wasted

NSFW

8.4

drunk

∞ 1.6

punchy

4 8.1

tipsy

Informal

18 4.8

sober

269 3.2

Surface Forms

punchy positive

Morphology

punchy = punch (semi-transparent) = punch + y

Formed from 'punch' (the drink) + '-y' to mean 'affected by punch' (tipsy); this requires knowledge of 'punch' as an alcoholic beverage, so it may not be obvious to all learners.

Etymology

A helpful way to remember punchy meaning slightly drunk is to think of punch, the alcoholic drink that came into English from Hindi panch meaning 'five' because old recipes used five main ingredients, so being 'punchy' is like feeling the drink's effects.