pot-valiant

See also: potvaliant

English

Alternative forms

• potvaliant

Adjective

pot-valiant (comparative more pot-valiant, superlative most pot-valiant)

1. Having bravado from drunkenness. [from 17th c.]
   • 1798, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, “[Maria: or, The] Wrongs of Woman”, in W[illiam] Godwin, editor, Posthumous Works of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. […], volume I, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […]; and G[eorge,] G[eorge] and J[ohn] Robinson, […], →OCLC, chapter V, page 94:

     Her huſband was ‘pot-valiant,’ he feared her not at the moment, nor had he then much reaſon, for ſhe inſtantly turned the whole force of her anger another way.

   • 1827, [Walter Scott], chapter VIII, in Chronicles of the Canongate; […], volume II (The Surgeon’s Daughter), Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, pages 204–205:

     You know the sort of fellows that we are obliged to content ourselves with—they get drunk—grow pot-valiant—enlist over night, and repent next morning.

   • 1900, Fergus Hume, “The Honour of Gabriel”, in Bishop Pendle: Or, The Bishop’s Secret, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Rand, McNally & Company, →OCLC, page 286:

     He looked up as the horse approached, but did not run away, being rendered pot-valiant by the liquor he had drunk earlier in the evening.

Synonyms

• in one's armour

Related terms

• pot-valiancy

See also

• Dutch courage
• liquid courage