Variant of:
I wish I could drink like a lady.
"Two or three," at the most.
But two, and I'm under the table—
And three, I'm under the host.
• The Harlequin, Volume 2, 1959, University of Virginia (page 15)
• Perhaps attributed due to "One more drink and I'd have been under the host." (see above).
• “Martini Madness: Dorothy Parker didn’t write the famous quatrain about martinis that’s always attributed to her.”, Troy Patterson, Slate, April 8, 2013
I wish I could drink like a lady.
"Two or three," at the most.
But two, and I'm under the table—
And three, I'm under the host.
• The Harlequin, Volume 2, 1959, University of Virginia (page 15)
• Perhaps attributed due to "One more drink and I'd have been under the host." (see above).
• “Martini Madness: Dorothy Parker didn’t write the famous quatrain about martinis that’s always attributed to her.”, Troy Patterson, Slate, April 8, 2013
“
I like to have a martini, Two at the very most. After three I'm under the table, After four I'm under my host.
— Variant of
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "I like to have a martini, Two at the very most. After three I'm under the table, After four I'm under my host." in the context of "Variant of:
I wish I could drink like a lady.
"Two or three," at the most.
But two, and I'm under the table—
And three, I'm under the host.
• The Harlequin, Volume 2, 1959, University of Virginia (page 15)
• Perhaps attributed due to "One more drink and I'd have been under the host." (see above).
• “Martini Madness: Dorothy Parker didn’t write the famous quatrain about martinis that’s always attributed to her.”, Troy Patterson, Slate, April 8, 2013" to mean that wisdom is timeless.
Source: Wikiquote: "Dorothy Parker" (Misattributed: Note: A great many misquotations are attributed to Dorothy Parker. Please try to verify the provenance of any quotations you believe should be ascribed to her. Parker herself wrote about the perils of misquotation in "A Pig's Eye Look At Literature")
The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
About Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker (August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American writer, poet, and critic. A fixture of 1920s literary society known for her acerbic wit and low opinion of romantic relationships, she became a member of the Algonquin Round Table.
About Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker (August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American writer, poet, and critic. A fixture of 1920s literary society known for her acerbic wit and low opinion of romantic relationships, she became a member of the Algonquin Round Table.
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