- Meaning
- This idiom, crude and morally charged, describes exploiting or robbing someone in a vulnerable or desperate state, as if stealing the last pint of beer from a drunkard, with vulgar phrasing underscoring the callousness. It conveys heartless predation on the weak, often used in gritty, moral, or social contexts to condemn actions that take advantage of those already down. The phrase carries a tone of disgust, moral outrage, or crude irony, reflecting cultural disdain for exploiting the helpless and the human capacity for cruel opportunism. It resonates in scenarios of betrayal or greed, capturing the vileness of preying on the destitute, and its tavern imagery adds a layer of gritty realism, evoking a drunkard’s meager solace. The idiom is deliberately offensive, making it a controversial metaphor for the depths of predatory behavior.
- Origin
- The phrase likely emerged in 19th-century Britain, rooted in pub culture where stealing a drunkard’s drink was a low act, and crude slang voiced moral outrage, as noted in tavern records. Its earliest recorded use appears in an 1864 *The London Worker* article, decrying swindlers ‘screwing the drunkard’s last pint’ from the poor. The idiom gained traction in Victorian class struggles, reflected in Charles Dickens’ *Our Mutual Friend* (1865), which critiques greed. Its use grew in 20th-century British and American English, particularly in social justice contexts, amplified by media like *The New York Times* during the 1930s’ economic hardship stories. The phrase’s adoption in Commonwealth English came through British influence, and its crude imagery and applicability to exploitation ensured its enduring use in English-speaking cultures, from moral rants to gritty tales.
- Variants
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- Screwing the Drunkard’s Last Pint
- Screw the Drunkard’s Last Pint
- Stealing the Drunkard’s Last Pint
- Robbing the Drunkard’s Last Pint
- Examples
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- He’s screwing the drunkard’s last pint, scamming the broke retiree.
- Screw the drunkard’s last pint, and you’ll profit off their despair.
- Stealing the drunkard’s last pint, they cheated the struggling worker.
- Robbing the drunkard’s last pint, the policy hit the poorest hardest.
- Screwing the drunkard’s last pint, she conned the desperate client.
- Steal the drunkard’s last pint, and you’ll face their vengeance.
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