pot-valiant

• potvaliant

pot-valiant (comparative more pot-valiant, superlative most pot-valiant)

1. Having bravado from drunkenness. [from 17th c.]
   • 1798, Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman‎:

     Her husband was “pot-valiant,” he feared her not at the moment, nor had he then much reason, for she instantly turned the whole force of her anger another way.

   • 1831, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 7, in The Surgeon's Daughter:

     "You know the sort of fellows that we are obliged to content ourselves with—they get drunk—grow pot-valiant—enlist over-night, and repent next morning."

   • 1900, Fergus Hume, chapter 35, in The Bishop's Secret:

     He looked up as the horse approached, but did not run away, being rendered pot-valiant by the liquor he had drunk earlier in the evening.

• in one's armour

• pot-valiancy

• Dutch courage
• liquid courage