по пьяному делу

• ПО ПЬЯНОЙ ЛАВОЧКЕ <ПОД ПЬЯНУЮ ЛАВОЧКУ, ПО ПЬЯНКЕ, ПО ПЬЯНОМУ ДЕЛУ> all highly coll

[PrepP; these forms only; adv; fixed WO]

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⇒ (in refer, to a person) in a state of intoxication:

- when one is drunk (pickled, in his cups);

- when one has had one (a few) too many;

- when one has had too much to drink;

- in a drunken state.

     ♦ [Галина:] ...Бывал ли ты когда-нибудь в церкви? [Зилов:] Да. Раз мы заходили с ребятами. По пьянке. А ты? [Галина:] А я с бабушкой. За компанию (Вампилов 5). [G.:] Have you ever been to church? [Z.:] Yes. Looked in once with some of my mates, when we were drunk. Have you? [G.:] I went with my grandmother. To keep her company (5a).

     ♦ "Захочу, - говорит, - в два счёта повыгоняю вас с работы". Это он на деда и Сейдахмата. И то по пьяному делу (Айтматов 1). "If I have a mind to," he'd say, Til fire you all at one stroke." This was directed to grandfather and Seidakhmat. And pronounced when he was pickled (1b).

     ♦ [Брылов:] Ну, может, по пьянке баба ошиблась, не того [масла] купила (Солженицын 8). [В.:] Well, maybe my old woman made a mistake. Maybe she had one too many and bought the wrong kind of butter (8a).

     ♦ "Ну, а по пьяному делу, сама знаешь, мало ли чего можно сказать или сделать" (Войнович 5). "You know yourself the things you can say or do when you've had too much to drink" (5a).

     ♦ Среди них попадались славные малые, которые по пьяной лавочке умели рассказать много забавных историй... (Мандельштам 1). Among them there were some perfectly decent kids who in a drunken state would tell you [lots of] amusing tales... (1a).

     ♦ Друзей у него не было. Компании по пьяному делу он не водил - редко, разве что по большим праздникам, пропускал стопочку (Абрамов 1). [context transl] He had no friends. He did not indulge in drinking sessions-on rare occasions he would down a glass, but only on important holidays (1a).