Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DRUNK'EN-NESS, n.

1. Intoxication; inebriation; a state in which a person is overwhelmed or overpowered with spirituous liquors, so that his reason is disordered, and he reels or staggers in walking. Drunkenness renders some persons stupid, others gay, others sullen, others furious. Let us walk honestly as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness. – St. Paul.
2. Habitual ebriety or intoxication. – Watts.
3. Disorder of the faculties resembling intoxication by liquors; inflammation; frenzy; rage. Passion is the drunkenness of the mind. – Spenser.