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Comment by prawn | Hacker News Reader

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prawn·

Is this what you mean by "a lush"?

"lush. one who becomes intoxicated after a few drinks and flirts with everyone." [Urban Dictionary]

It's not a term I've encountered before in Australia.

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A lush is someone who overindulges in alcohol enthusiastically, but doesn't rise to the level of being an alcoholic. It is commonly used to tease someone about their drinking without calling them a drunk.

I would say "may not rise to the level of being an alcoholic." I would not think it weird for the term "lush" to be applied to a (friendly/happy - as you say, "enthusiastic") alcoholic.

I'm Australian and thought it was in fairly common usage.

Maybe it's a generational or geographical thing within our country? Because I'm also Australian and I've never heard "lush" used in conversation around me, with this meaning.

Although this thread has just explained a line from a song by a US artist that I've heard where "lush" is used in this context and it now makes more sense to me.

Perhaps that's what the term means to the author. To others, it's a synonym for a drunkard or alcoholic and has nothing to do with flirting.

Maybe it's an affectionate way of saying boozehound, as you might needle a friend.

It's pretty clear from the smiley in the title that he was just teasing her. I just found it odd that he would write it in the title of a blog post meant to be read by thousands of strangers. It's like shouting some bit of raillery at your friend across a crowded public plaza.

I've encountered it once or twice here in AU. It is rare though.

It's rare here in the US as well. I find it an odd term.

It's pretty common in the Midwest.

(I guess it wouldn't come up in a lot of conversations, but it isn't obscure)

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