had a brick in one's hat

Verb

have a brick in one's hat (third-person singular simple present has a brick in one's hat, present participle having a brick in one's hat, simple past and past participle had a brick in one's hat)

1. (New-England, idiomatic, obsolete) To be drunk.
   • Seated at the same table with our Mr.—, was a gentleman, who, to use the current phrase, ‘had a brick in his hat.’1846 November, “Magnelia Pedestria; or, Leaves from a Pedestrian’s Note Book”, in The Yale Literary Magazine, volume 12, number 1, page 33