This phrase is derived in reference to sailing and sailing ships, and implies an individual "[u]nsteady from drink" (Smyth & Belcher, 1867; Martin, 2023). The "sheet" referred to is the nautical term for a rope (line) that controls the trim of a sail. The phrase was originally "three sheets in the wind", but also appears in its early examples with the number references "two" and "one", and is thought to derive from the fact that when "sheets [of a sailing vessel] are loose and blowing about in the wind[,] then the sails will flap" such that the boat lurches about "like a drunken sailor" (Martin, 2023). As of the last editing of Gary Martin's entry for the idiom, the phrase was most often presented as it is in the title (i.e., "...to [rather than 'in'] the wind"; Martin, 2023). The attribution of the expression's origin to the form with the preposition "in" is supported by a case of the phrase in print of the "two sheets" variation, in The Journal of Rev. Francis Asbury (1815, entry for 26 September 1813), which recounts the author's travels in the South, in the United States: "The tavernkeepers were kind and polite... [but] sometimes two sheets in the wind." (Martin, 2023). The "three sheets" variation is found in Pierce Egan's Real Life in London (1821), which says "Old Wax and Bristles is about three sheets in the wind." (Martin, 2023). About the variations of the number appearing, Martin states,Sailors at that time had a sliding scale of drunkenness; three sheets was the falling over stage; tipsy was just 'one sheet in the wind', or 'a sheet in the wind's eye' (Martin, 2023). A further example is Catherine Ward's "The Fisher's Daughter" (1824), in which "...Mr. Blust... instead of being one sheet in the wind, was likely to get to three before he took his departure." (Martin, 2023). Hence, "three sheets in/to the wind" describes an inebriated person (Smyth & Belcher, 1867; Martin, 2023) no longer in control, and—at least historically—lesser numbers implying lessened states of incapacity (Martin, 2023).

befuddled • besotted • bibulous • blind drunk • blotto • bosky • buzzed • cocked • cockeyed • crapulous • cut • flashy • fluted • fou • four sheets to the wind • fried • gacked • half cut • half-baked • intoxicate • juiced • legless • lit • loaded • lubed up • lubricated • mad with it • maudlin • messed up • muddy • mullered • nimptopsical • obliterated • oiled • ossified • para • parro • peloothered • pie-eyed • pissed drunk