English

Verb

hold one's liquor

1. (idiomatic) To be resistant to intoxication or to show few signs of intoxication, even after consuming a significant amount of alcohol.
   • 1927, "Alcoholic Rats and Heredity," Popular Science, vol. 110, no. 6, p. 39:

     Just because a person is descended from hard-drinking ancestors is no sign that he can "hold his liquor" better than others.

   • 1987, Patricia Morrisroe, "The Life and Death of Sandy Marsh," New York Magazine‎, vol. 20, no. 36 (14 Sep.) , p. 49:

     Sandy Marsh didn't hold her liquor particularly well; she could get tipsy on two glasses of red wine.

   • 2002, Emma Holly, Beyond Seduction‎, ISBN 9780515133080, p. 87:

     When I first came to London and fell in with Sebastian and Evangeline, neither could hold their liquor, nor judge which glass should be their last.

See also

• good drunk