4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Kirill, I think You have found the best thinkable solution for the target word. With David's subtle hyphen, I coud see it as a native English term - if I were able to imagine an Englishman in such a state. Yet, I look for more aphoristic form of the definition itself. What about the shortest: "drank more than could but less than would"? GaryG, too, in its own way (:-), is very close to truth. All participants are to be graded for the nice discussion!"