# Three sheets to the wind **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 15, 2002, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-sheets-to-the-wind/119048 "2002-07-15T12:53:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![insider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@insider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/insider)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2002, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-sheets-to-the-wind/119048/1 "2002-07-15T12:53:41Z")
Where did the phrase for being drunk “three sheets to the wind” originate? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2002, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-sheets-to-the-wind/119048/2 "2002-07-15T12:57:29Z")
It’s almost certainly a sailing term, referring to raising three large sails and subsequently zooming along at full speed without a care in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2002, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-sheets-to-the-wind/119048/3 "2002-07-15T12:59:40Z")
From [Nautical Terms in Common Usage](http://www.fortogden.com/nauticalterms.html) > [@](#): > > Three Sheets to the Wind - > A sheet is a rope line which controls the tension on the downwind side of a square sail. If, on a three masted fully rigged ship, the sheets of the three lower course sails are loose, the sails will flap and flutter and are said to be “in the wind”. A ship in this condition would stagger and wander aimlessly downwind. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2002, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-sheets-to-the-wind/119048/4 "2002-07-15T13:02:38Z")
> [@](#): > > It’s almost certainly a sailing term, referring to raising three large sails and subsequently zooming along at full speed without a care in the world. A “sheet” is a rope that controls a sail. For example on a sloop, the main sheet controls the main sail and a jib sheet controls the jib sail. [sub]I used to sail every weekend at the San Diego Navy Sailing Club when I was a kid. 😉 [/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2002, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-sheets-to-the-wind/119048/5 "2002-07-15T16:59:21Z")
The way it was explained to me, it was derived from windmills. The windmill had a four bladed ‘propeller’ whose wooden-ribbed blades were covered with sheets to harnass the wind energy. For normal wind, all four blades were sheet clad. In high winds, four sheets would spin the prop way to fast (no multispeed transmission) so they would remove two sheets, effectively making a two- bladed prop. THREE sheets would be unbalanced and unaerodynamic, leading an uneven, lurching prop shaft rotation. This was likened to the clumsy gait of a drunk, thus: “he’s got three sheets to the wind”. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2002, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-sheets-to-the-wind/119048/6 "2002-07-15T18:25:42Z")
Here are a couple of other references: From [The Phrase Finder](http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/meanings/380500.html): > [@](#): > > **Meaning** > Drunk. > > **Origin** > Three sheets to (or in) the wind is a nautical expression. If three sheets - which are the ropes holding the sails rather than the sails themselves - are loose and blowing about then the boat will lurch about like a drunken sailor. I don’t know where it originated but I expect it was from the British Navy. Dickens uses it in Dombey and Son. And [here’s what the U.S. Navy has to say about it](http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/traditions/html/navyterm.html): > [@](#): > > **Three Sheets to the Wind** > > We use the term “three sheets to the wind” to describe someone who has too much to drink. As such, they are often bedraggled with perhaps shirttails out, clothes a mess. The reference is to a sailing ship in disarray, that is with sheets (lines — not “ropes” — that adjust the angle at which a sail is set in relation to the wind ) flapping loosely in the breeze. FWIW I found more hits on “three sheets to the wind” and “sail”, and “three sheets to the wind” and “ship” than I did with “three sheets to the wind” and “windmill”. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-sheets-to-the-wind/119048/7 "2002-07-16T04:41:54Z")
almost certainly it refers to what **Johnny LA** said–the ropes that hold the sails. The phrase was probably frist used by Richard Henry Dana 1840. The windmill story originated in the 20th century from a professor who visited Nantucket, and had a fanciful story told to him by the guide at the windmill. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-sheets-to-the-wind/119048/8 "2002-08-12T03:11:22Z")
Just an update as to when “three sheets in or to the wind” first originated. Michael Quinion mentions it in a new column at [http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-thr1.htm](http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-thr1.htm) He gets it back as far as 1821in print. But adds that it surely goes back farther. ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-sheets-to-the-wind/119048/9 "2002-08-12T03:44:30Z")
one more vote for the sails theory (used to sail, too) ---
**Author:** ![Forbin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5e9695/32.png) [@Forbin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Forbin)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-sheets-to-the-wind/119048/10 "2002-08-12T05:21:10Z")
**Johnny L.A.** got it right. {nitpick} On board ship there is _no such thing_ as rope. It’s called line. {/nitpick} ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-sheets-to-the-wind/119048/11 "2002-08-13T04:55:13Z")
good catch, **Corbin**. Etymologically speaking, the word “line” to mean a rope on a ship came before “rope” in English. But that’s back around 900-1300. I don’t know what term was used in the 1700’s onboard an English ship. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-sheets-to-the-wind/119048/12 "2002-08-13T12:18:07Z")
There is one rope on a ship – the rope that rings the bell. However, in general use, no sailor ever uses the word “rope.” It’s just too general a term. Telling someone to “pull that rope taut” is useless when there are three or four ropes lying on deck. Saying, “tighten the sheet” or “pull on the halyard” gives specific direction as to which rope needs to be attended to. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-sheets-to-the-wind/119048/13 "2002-08-13T12:20:41Z")
When I type something about a line on a ship, I type “line”; but then I realized people mightn’t understand exactly what I’m saying, so I go back and change it to “rope”.