what does the saying "two sheets to the wind" actually mean?

Answer 1

That you're drunk?

Answer 2

2 Sheets To The Wind

Answer 3

Two Sheets To The Wind

Answer 4

The term is properly "three sheets to the wind" and it has a nautical origin. A sheet is the rope that holds the clew of a sail tight and under control. No sail can have more than two sheets so it would be a very poor sailor indeed who allowed a sail to have three sheets loose in the wind. The term is therefore used to describe a state of extreme incapability due to drink.

Answer 5

To understand this phrase we need to enter the arcane world of nautical terminolgy. Little is as it seems when onboard ship, so it's no big surprise that sheets aren't sails, as landlubbers might expect, but ropes.

A sheet was a rope used to control a sail. Usually four sheets were used to adjust (trim) a sail’s angle to the wind. If a sheet became damaged or was released, it was said to be ‘in the wind’, and the corner of the sail it was securing was left to flap about. The more sheets damaged or released the greater the sail billowed and the harder it became to regain control of the ship. The sayings ‘one sheet….’, ‘two sheets….’ and so on were used to describe various stages of drunkenness; a sailor described as being ‘three sheets in the wind’ would have been very drunk.
If three sheets are loose and blowing about in the wind then the boat will lurch about like a drunken sailor.

Meaning: Drunk

Answer 6

The phrase "three sheets in the wind" means very drunk
The sheet is the rope attached to the clew of a sail - used for trimming sail.
If the sheet is free it is in the wind and therefore flapping in a tipsy manner.
Three sheets to (or in) the wind has come to mean very drunk
Two sheets means drunk.

Answer 7

The answer is listed at the site in sources

Taken from sailing a square-rigged sailboat; square sails had four sheets (the ropes attached to the corners of the sail) to control them. If one or even two sheets went "to the wind" (meaning flapping in the breeze and hard to retrieve) the boat was still quasi-controllable. However, if a third sheet was lost to the wind, you had no way to fill your sail and were essentially out of control


2.
The original form of the expression was three sheets in the wind (not "to"), which literally means 'with the sail completely unsecured', and thus flapping about, and with the boat itself thus unsteady. (Sails can be secured with varying numbers of sheets, but the square-rigged boats used at the time when the expression became current usually had three sheets.) There are many other nautical expressions for drunkenness, such as "with decks awash," "half seas over," and "over the bay," but few of them have spread so thoroughly to the mainstream.

Answer 8

It means, of course for someone to be Very drunk, highly intoxicated.

An example sentence would be: The groom made it to the alter, but he was three sheets to the wind.

As to the origin: The phrase comes from 18th-19th century English Naval terminology. The original phrase was "three Sheets in the wind" and referred to the erratic behavior of a ship that has lost control of all of its sails.

In nautical terminology sheets are the ropes that adjust the position of the sails relative to the wind.

The speed and direction of a sailing ship is controlled by the number of sails raised on each mast, the angle of the sails to the wind (trim of the sails), and the position of the rudder. If the sheets used to control the sails are to break or are have been released, the sheet is said to be "in the wind".

One can imagine a sail thrashing wildly in a strong wind with its sheet (the control ropes) blowing about. It would be very difficult to regain control of such a sail.

Prior to the 1810's it was common for ships to have three masts, (fore, main, and mizzen). If the sheets on all three masts are "in the wind", the ship loses all steering control.

The ship's lack of control is likened to that of a stumbling drunk.

Answer 9

It's a nautical term. "Sheets" refers to sails. Not sure what the significance is of two sheets to the wind is, or 1 sheet, or 10 sheets. It probably means you're impaired, like a sailing ship would be impaired if it only had 2 sheets to the wind and the rest were just flapping in the breeze.

Answer 10

It means you are flying. Like two sheets meaning sails in the wind on a spinaker. Drunk.

Answer 11

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what does the saying "two sheets to the wind" actually mean?