Are you seeing pink elephants?

Poor Vijay’s heart broke and he drank so much he began seeing pink elephants when his rich father refused to let him marry his poor girlfriend.

Learning new ways of expression is a sure shot way of improving your spoken English. In this post, we discuss a very interesting phrase, “Seeing pink elephants”. Let’s take a look at the following examples:

1. It was Sushil’s birthday party. Sandeep, his best friend got so drunk he began seeing pink elephants.
2. Manish was very happy because his brother had got selected in the army. He drank a lot, so much so that he began seeing pink elephants.

I am sure you get the drift. It is a drinking phrase, so to say and used to describe a condition when someone is so heavily intoxicated, he is completely out of his senses and begins imagining things.

A very similar phrase is, “Seeing pink spiders” or “Seeing snakes“. Thus, you may have sentences like, “Mohit was so drunk he was seeing pink spiders during his own wedding” or All his friends were so drunk, they were seeing snakes.

A very close phrase in meaning is, “As drunk as a skunk” which basically means the same thing – so drunk that you have gone completely crazy.

Let’s take a look at few examples of these phrases in action:

1. I was as drunk as a skunk in the office party
2. Sumit was so drunk in his office party, he was seeing pink elephants
3. The filmstar was so drunk at the award function, he was seeing pink spiders. Luckily, his bodyguards quickly whisked him away from the cameras.
4. At his son’s marriage, old Mr Sharma went totally crazy. He drank like a fish and soon he was seeing snakes.
5. I am going to get totally sloshed out at my best friend Sanju’s marriage party. I wouldn’t stop till I see pink elephants.
6. Manish was really enjoying the drinking games but when he started seeing snakes, he realized he had had enough and stopped right there.