‘烂醉’ is an expressive, colloquial adjective meaning 'dead drunk' or 'completely intoxicated'—emphasizing a state of extreme, uncontrolled drunkenness. The character 烂 (làn) literally means 'rotten' or 'mushy', suggesting something broken down, ruined, or utterly disintegrated; 醉 (zuì) means 'drunk'. Together, they form a vivid metaphor: the person’s faculties are so thoroughly compromised that they’re metaphorically 'rotted away' by alcohol. This term carries strong connotations of loss of control, physical impairment, and social impropriety.

It’s commonly used in informal speech and writing to describe someone who has lost all composure due to drinking—slurring, stumbling, passing out, or behaving wildly. While vivid and widely understood, it’s not appropriate in formal contexts (e.g., medical reports or official documents) and often implies mild disapproval or concern. It functions predicatively (e.g., 他烂醉了) or attributively before nouns (e.g., 烂醉的人), but rarely as a standalone noun.