Green’s Dictionary of Slang

soused adj.

drunk.

1600		Dekker Shoemakers’ Holiday II iii: Trip and goe, you sowst conger, away.
1614		T. Tomkis Albumazar II ix: Shall I be married to Antonio, that hath beene a soust sea-fish this three months?
1640		‘Mary Tattle-well’ Womens sharpe revenge 172: All sorts of people and Nations are drunk in severall formes [...] a Welchman stew’d as mellow as a Pruine [...] a Scotchman mull’d with drinke [...] an Irishman pickl’d in Vsquebaugh [...] an Englishman shall be all this and more, for he will be drench’d, stew’d, mull’d, pickled, sowz’d, and bloated.
1701		Cibber Love Makes a Man I i: ant.: Well! dids’t thou make a Night on’t, Boy? clo.: Yes, I Gad! and a Morning too, Sir for about eight a Clock the next Day, slap they all sous’d upon their Knees, kiss’d round, burnt their Commodes, drank my Health, broke their Glasses, and so departed.
1824		Hughes Magic Lay of the Onehorse Shay (Blackwood) n.p.: When our pair were soused enough, and returned in their buff [F&H].
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 299: ’Opes I shalln’t get soused.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 84: One night a few weeks ago when you were soused.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 84: Let’s all get jolly well soused, as you say over ’ere!
1917		W.Y. Stevenson At the Front in a Flivver 3 June 🌐 Unfortunately he was ‘soused,’ and sleeping it off!
1927		(con. 1900s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 67: Juanita, who’d stood for him and merely kidded him, no matter how soused and rough and mouthy he might be!
1937		‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 205: He was half stewed and the rest of us were soused.
1948		They Live By Night [film script] Poppa’s gone up to town. He’ll get himself soused and shoot his mouth off.
1953		K. Tennant Joyful Condemned 306: Grandma used to get a bit soused sometimes, but she fed me O.K.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 19: A soused-up wiseacre always looking for trouble.
1963		F. Kohner Affairs of Gidget 110: She must have been soused.
1992		Guardian 22 Feb. 31/4: You’re too soused to get undressed.
1977		R. Coover Public Burning (1979) 436: If he doesn’t get soused and blow it all, he could leave here a rich man.
1988		Eble Campus Sl. Oct.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 149: She’s totally soused.
2012		T. Piccirilli Last Kind Words 178: ‘[F]or now let’s get soused in style’.
2017		M. Forsyth Short History of Drunkenness 61: The great thing about being soused on a couch is that you can go to sleep then and there.
2024		D. Swierczynski California Bear 24: ‘No further questions, Your Honor. Let’s get soused’.

In phrases

soused to the gills (adj.) (also soused to the bald spot, …ears, ...guards, soused over head and ears) [to the gills under gills n.¹ ]

(UK/US) very drunk.

1630		Tinker of Turvey Epistle: For I (Trotter the Tincker) haue beene sowc’d ouer head and eares in the Mediterranean Sea of Metheglin, and all other sorts of Liquors.
1903		‘Hugh McHugh’ I Need The Money 90: Uncle Peter soused to the bald spot!
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 64: I’ve been soused to the guards an’ all the rest of it. I like my beer.
1916		A. Stringer Door of Dread 57: They was soused to the gills [...] they was so lit up I short-changed ’em a couple o’ bones.
1920		E. O’Neill Anna Christie Act I: You’re soused to the ears, Dutchy.
1929		L. Thomas Woodfill of the Regulars 46: That was the first and last time that I was ever soused right up to the gills.
1934		H. Miller Tropic of Cancer (1963) 114: Standing at the Dôme bar is Marlowe, soused to the ears.
1935		J. Conroy World to Win 85: He had chanced upon the one telling about Noah lying in his tent, soused to the gills.