In poverty, chose one bottle to get drunk (5,2,3,4)
I believe the answer is:
close to the bone
'in poverty' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.
'chose one bottle to get drunk' is the wordplay.
'to get drunk' indicates anagramming the letters.
'chose'+'one'+'bottle'='choseonebottle'
'choseonebottle' anagrammed gives 'CLOSE TO THE BONE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for close to the bone that I've seen before include "Naughty" , "Where some body parts are" , "Almost offensive" , "like an intense osteologist?" , "Verging on the indecent" .)