crook (one's)/the elbow
To drink alcohol, perhaps excessively. Come crook your elbow at the bar with us tonight! If you're this hung-over, you must have really crooked the elbow at the party last night. Please don't let her drive home, she's clearly been crooking her elbow tonight.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
crook one's elbow
Also, bend one's elbow. Drink liquor, especially a great deal. For example, Bill is known to crook his elbow now and then, or Uncle Joe rather overdoes it with bending his elbow. Both slangy expressions allude to the motion of lifting a drink to one's lips, which involves bending the elbow. The first dates from about 1820, and the second from about 1900.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.