pot-valiant

[ pot-val-yuhnt ]

adjective

1. brave only as a result of being drunk.

Other Words From

• pot-valiant·ly adverb
• pot-val·or [pot, -val-er], pot-val·ian·cy [pot, -val-y, uh, n-see], noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of pot-valiant¹

First recorded in 1635–45

Example Sentences

Then, fired by his hints, the pot-valiant heroes would rush forth and run a-muck--a right jovial way of finishing an evening from the point of view of a Cherokee; and the chancellor, protesting that the boys really were too lively and amusing, would return to the House alone by the private covered way.

From Project Gutenberg

Oxford became the stronghold of Jacobitism, the scene of treasonable talk over the wine in the Common Room, of riotous demonstrations by pot-valiant undergraduates in the streets, of Jacobite orations at academical festivals, amid frantic cheers of the assembled University, of futile plotting and puerile conspiracies which never put a man in the field.

From Project Gutenberg

With pot-valiant courage they declare their intention of seeking out and slaying this false traitor Death, and without more ado set forth on the quest.

From Project Gutenberg

He was too drunk to feel the blow, so he sat on the road, his rifle on the ground, holding his jaw with both hands and bawling in pot-valiant style.

From Project Gutenberg

After an hour or so passed in desultory conversation, the “man of a mission,” standing with his back to the fire, with hands parting his coat tails—the habitual attitude of the Third Napoleon—took the cigar from between his teeth, and made résumé as follows:— “Understood, then, that you, Prussia, send a force into Baden, sufficient to crush those pot-valiant German collegians, mad, no doubt, from drinking your villainous Rhine wine!”

From Project Gutenberg