The original expression was actually three sheets in the wind not to the wind. A sheet that is in the wind has come loose from its mooring and is flapping in the wind like a flag.
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The sheet in the phrase uses the nautical meaning of a rope that controls the trim of sail.
Sheets in the wind meaning. A sheet is a line a piece of rope that is fastened to a corner of a sail at one end and is made fast at the other end to some place on the vessel to hold the shape and position of the sail. Three sheets to the wind. Two or three sheets to or in the wind.
The sheet in the phrase uses the nautical meaning of a rope that controls the trim of sail. Also three sheets in the wind. Three sheets to the wind is indeed a seafaring expression.
If they are hanging loose in the wind the vessel is likely to be out of control or taking an erratic course. To be explicitly drunk. If a sheet is loose the sail flaps and doesnt provide control for the ship.
Three sheets to the wind. Its usually three sheets to the wind meaning blind staggering drunk but you can have as many sheets to the wind as you have on your sailing vessel. Sailors language is unsurprisingly all at sea and many supposed derivations have to go by the board.
In the sailing world the word sheet actually refers to a rope not the sail it controls although some nautical sources suggest the word did once refer to the corners of a sail. Sheets actually refer to the ropes that are used to secure a ships sail. If all three sails are loose the ship is out of control.
Pronunciation edit. Having several sheets loose to the wind could cause the ship to rock about drunkenly. This expression is generally thought to refer to the sheet that is a rope or chain that holds one or both lower corners of a sail.
To understand this phrase we need to enter the arcane world of nautical terminology. To be three sheets to the wind is to be drunk. If the line is not secured the sail flops in the wind and the ship loses headway and control.
A sheet that is in the wind has come loose from its mooring and is flapping in the wind like a flag. Sheets here are the ropes attached to the corners of a ships sail used for controlling the extent and direction of the sail. Drunk inebriated as in after six beers hes three sheets to the wind.
The sheet is the line that controls the sails on a ship. If the 3 ropes used were loose in the wind the sail would flop around causing the ship to wobble around much like a drunk. The origins of this expression are nautical.
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