Don't ask me my dad always said this expression.

Here's the history and meaning http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19980703 The expression three sheets to the wind, which means 'extremely drunk', mystifies many people. The key to understanding it is that there are two different sheets, and this expression uses the other one. The usual sense of sheet is 'a large, thin, rectangular piece of fabric used as bedding', with a host of subsenses. This word is from Old English, and is related to similar words in other Germanic languages. The word sheet in our expression is the nautical sheet, meaning 'a rope, chain, etc. used to secure or adjust the sail of a ship'. This word is also ultimately from Old English, a shortening of sheet-line, that is, 'sail-rope', with the sheet the same as our above sheet in the sense 'a sail'. The original form of the expression was three sheets in the wind (not "to"), which literally means 'with the sail completely unsecured', and thus flapping about, and with the boat itself thus unsteady. (Sails can be secured with varying numbers of sheets, but the square-rigged boats used at the time when the expression became current usually had three sheets.) There are many other nautical expressions for drunkenness, such as "with decks awash," "half seas over," and "over the bay," but few of them have spread so thoroughly to the mainstream. Three sheets in the wind is first found in the early 1820s in both British and American sources. There are many other variants ("a sheet in the wind," meaning 'somewhat drunk', etc.), and the most common form today is three sheets to the wind.

Meaning - Drunk. Origin: Our colleagues at CANOE, the Committee to Ascribe a Nautical Origin to Everything, have been hard at work and, to their great pleasure, they can add this phrase to their list. Three sheets to the wind (or three sheets in the wind) is indeed a nautical expression. To understand this phrase we need to enter the arcane world of nautical terminology. Little is as it seems when onboard ship, so it's no big surprise that sheets aren't sails as landlubbers might expect, but ropes, or occasionally, chains. These are fixed to the lower corners of sails, to hold them in place. If three sheets are loose and blowing about in the wind then the boat will lurch about like a drunken sailor. The earliest printed citation is Pierce Egan Real life in London, 1821: "Old Wax and Bristles is about three sheets in the wind." The earliest that makes the association with drunkenness is Richard Dana Jr's Two years before the mast, 1840: "He seldom went up to the town without coming down 'three sheets in the wind'." http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/380500.html The term "three sheets to the wind", meaning "staggering drunk", refers to a ship whose sheets have come loose, causing the sails to flap uncontrolled and the ship to meander at the mercy of the elements. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_sheets_to_the_wind http://www.bartleby.com/59/4/threesheetst.html Drunk. Though this is not really a nautical term, it no doubt originated at sea. When the sheets (the lines that control the angle of the sails) are loosed, the ship will lose way and wallow out of control like a drunken sailor. http://www.seatalk.info/cgi-bin/nautical-marine-sailing-dictionary/db.cgi?db=db&view_records=1&uid=default&Term=three+sheets+to+the+wind 1 : a rope or chain that regulates the angle at which a sail is set in relation to the wind 2 plural : the spaces at either end of an open boat not occupied by thwarts : foresheets and stern sheets together - three sheets in the wind or three sheets to the wind : DRUNK http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=three+sheets+to+the+wind Derived from sailing ships. The 'sheet' in the phrase uses the nautical meaning of a rope that controls the trim of sail. If a sheet is loose, the sail flaps and doesn't provide control for the ship. Having several sheets loose ("to the wind") would cause the ship to rock about drunkenly. Before settling on the standard usage of "three sheets", a scale used to be employed to rate the drunkeness of a person, with "one sheet" meaning slightly enebriated, and "four sheets" mean uncounscious. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Three_sheets_to_the_wind This old saying indicating how a person walk after having too much to drink originated in New England. Wind mills used for grinding grain had four blades. Big sheets (similar to sails) where stretched across the blades (or woven between the slates). The wind mill would wobble when only three blades were loaded, hence the term "three sheets to the wind" http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=three+sheets+to+the+wind Similar slangs: Twisted (ireland) Buckled (ireland) Half polluted, or polluted (ire.) in the horrors (Co. Wexford, Ireland) porch climbing - (Canada) http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wikisaurus:drunk

The "three sheets" are sails on a boat. If they come loose, the ship goes round in circles, or sails erratically. Thus, a person who is extremely drunk is like a sailboat whose sails are loose.

I am not sure, but I think it originates from sailors who would drink too much and then couldn't properly rig the sails. I am probably totally wrong though.

Nautical slang. A "sheet" is a nautical term for a rope attached to a sail, and used to maintain a sail's shape. If a sail's "sheet" is loose, the sail flaps around and doesn't really do any good. So three sheets to the wind means three sails loose...and I leave you to imagine how that would look. ;-)