three-martini lunch

three-martini lunch

A long, relaxed lunch break at which cocktails are served. It is typically taken during the work day. Primarily heard in US. They're not getting anything done, they're just out on a three-martini lunch while the rest of us are stuck here in the office! Every time I travel to our corporate headquarters, the executives take me out for a three-martini lunch.
See also: lunch
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • quieten down
  • any (one) worth (one's) salt
  • keel over
  • young man
  • loose
  • walk it off
  • walk off
  • cause (some) eyebrows to raise
  • cause raised eyebrows
  • eyebrow
References in periodicals archive
Like Rindell's bestselling debut, The Other Typist, Three-Martini Lunch is a rollicking period piece that builds to a magnificent crescendo.
Although the beginning of the end for the cocktail culture was in sight, the post-war boom signaled corporate expansion and the three-martini lunch, and James Bond (aka Agent 007) insisted that his vodka martinis be "shaken, not stirred."
Forget diets and deprivation--they're as old hat as the three-martini lunch. For today's health-conscious executive, power dining is about moderation and smart choices.
Not so very long ago, he said, reinsurance premiums were calculated on the back of a napkin in a bar, often after a three-martini lunch.
The three-martini lunch write-off is back for the yacht club set.
(8) At best, the President's proposal is a blunt instrument: the disallowance would apply equally to both the sandwiches consumed during an all-day business meeting and the proverbial "three-martini lunch."
Most dispiriting episode: The greatest tragedy in showbiz was the demise of the three-martini lunch and the popularity of iced tea.
No longer in the West, at least are ad deals cut on lush green golf courses or over three-martini lunches on Madison Avenue by suave ad men.
The book is written in a breezy, almost gossipy style that presents all the egos, sexuality, power struggles, three-martini lunches, and, of course, the campaign stories a reader would expect.
We are approaching a world where the majority of digital advertising dollars can flow without three-martini lunches, phones, or fax machines in the picture.
Pete thinks elder partner Roger Sterling is a has-been--although Roger's expertise at schmoozing prospects over three-martini lunches is part of what built SCDP.
Wilder's manic habit of pacing back and forth, while holding a riding stick, not to mention partaking in three-martini lunches, proved too much for Chandler, who broke his sobriety soon after they finished.
He even damns "three-martini lunches." not realizing that they died with Dean Martin.
Mind you, this was in the early 1970s, when three-martini lunches and cigars were part of American corporate culture.
Restaurants and hotels want taxpayers to subsidize 100 percent of the cost of their customers' three-martini lunches and golf junkets.