proverb · Words worth keeping
Ever drunk, ever dry.
Ever drunk, ever dry.
Historical period not yet established
Understand the thought
Meaning in plain English
The saying pairs constant drunkenness with constant thirst. It presents repeated drinking as failing to settle the want that appears to drive it.
What the words are saying
Ever gives both states an enduring quality. A useful figurative reading asks whether repetition is actually meeting the desired need. The text does not provide a clinical explanation, a diagnosis or a claim that everyone who drinks has the same experience. Its compact contradiction can be discussed without turning it into an account of a particular person’s health.
Everyday example
Someone notices that repeatedly obtaining an appealing item has not resolved the dissatisfaction they hoped it would answer.
When to use it
Use it as an explicit analogy about repetition without satisfaction.
What it does not mean
The interpretation is not a diagnosis or a physiological rule about alcohol and thirst.
Agent-assisted editorial interpretation. This explains the words; it does not by itself verify their author or earliest origin.
Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Traditional
Attribution: traditional - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Historical period not yet established
No sufficiently supported historical placement has been established. Import and download dates are not treated as composition dates. - Recorded source
- A Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases
Entry 456 · Drunk
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.
- Culture
- English