drunkish

drunk +‎ -ish

drunkish (not comparable)

1. Somewhat drunk.
   • 1865, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia, Frederick the Great, Volume 5, Book 5, Chapter 1,

     […] every evening he comes precisely at a certain hour to drink beer, seasoned with a little tobacco, and the company of these two women. Drinks diligently in a sipping way, says Horace; and smokes, with such dull speech as there may be,—not till he is drunk, but only perceptibly drunkish; raised into a kind of cloudy narcotic Olympus, and opaquely superior to the ills of life; in which state he walks uncomplainingly to bed.

   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 3, in The Line of Beauty, New York: Bloomsbury, OCLC 1036692193:

     There was more laughter—and Gerald was leading them along very ably: they were drunkish and amenable, even gullible, since making a speech was a kind of trick.

• buzzed, tipsy; see Thesaurus:drunk