The term “three-ring circus” can literally refer to a circus with simultaneous performances in three rings. Figuratively it can denote something wild, confusing, engrossing, or entertaining. It was first introduced at the turn of the 20th Century.
Three sheets in the wind, or three sheets to the wind, used to mean “drunk,” goes back to the early 19th century. The first known use in print is in British writer Pierce Egan’s book Real Life in London (1821): “Old Wax and Bristles is about three sheets in the wind.” The “sheets” in this expression are not bedclothes, as you might have guessed, but neither are they sails. The sheets are ropes or chains that are attached to the lower corner of a ship’s sails and used to extend or shorten the sails. If you were on a three-sailed vessel and all three sheets were loose—in the wind—the boat would wallow about uncontrollably much like a staggering drunk. Old-time sailors would say that someone only slightly tipsy was “one sheet in the wind,” while a rip-roaring drunk was “three sheets in the wind.”
Picture Credit : Google