hold one's liquor

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hold one's liquor (third-person singular simple present holds one's liquor, present participle holding one's liquor, simple past and past participle held one's liquor)

1. (idiomatic) To be resistant to intoxication or to show few signs of intoxication, even after consuming a significant amount of alcohol.

   Synonyms: hold one's alcohol, hold one's drink

   • 1927, “Alcoholic Rats and Heredity”, in Popular Science, volume 110, number 6, page 39:

     Just because a person is descended from hard-drinking ancestors is no sign that he can "hold his liquor" better than others.

   • 1987 September 14, Patricia Morrisroe, “The Life and Death of Sandy Marsh”, in New York Magazine, volume 20, number 36, page 49:

     Sandy Marsh didn't hold her liquor particularly well; she could get tipsy on two glasses of red wine.

   • 2002, Emma Holly, Beyond Seduction‎, →ISBN, page 87:

     When I first came to London and fell in with Sebastian and Evangeline, neither could hold their liquor, nor judge which glass should be their last.

• good drunk