Word.ws English Dictionary

on the turps

on the turps prepositional phrase: drinking alcohol to excess.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (Australia, UK, slang) Drinking alcohol to excess.
    • ‘Been on the turps last night, I′d say,’ whispered Tony to Odette.
      ‘He′ll start to steady down and focus after three cups of my tea,’ laughed Odette.1992, Di Morrissey, The Last Rose of Summer, 2011, Read How You Want, EasyRead Large Edition, page 201
    • You might spot the odd parliamentarian on the turps at the Backbencher, a pub opposite the Beehive where rubbery puppets of NZ pollies are mounted trophy-style on the walls (David Lange is a beauty).2010, Brett Atkinson, Sarah Bennett, Scott Kennedy, New Zealand′s South Island, Lonely Planet, page 107

Synonyms of on the turps

Origin of on the turps

From on (“regularly taking”) + the + slang turps (“any alcoholic drink”).

Questions about on the turps

What does on the turps mean?
On the turps means drinking alcohol to excess.
What part of speech is on the turps?
On the turps is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the turps in the dictionary

  1. on the toss of a coin
  2. on the town
  3. on the trot
  4. on the turf
  5. on the turn
  6. on the turps
  7. on the up
  8. on the up and up
  9. on the up-and-up
  10. on the uptake
  11. on the verge

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the turps (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-on the turps.ogg.

Cite this entry: “on the turps.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_turps. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.