Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. very drunk.

[1916		Violet Town Sentinel (Vic.) 4 Apr. 1/7: ‘In the stummik of the earth there no concreat is.—Signed Otto von Blotto’].
1917		Bystander (London) 5 Sept. 433/2: [T]o live the rest of their honourable and patriotic lives , if they want to, tanked to the wide, opulently oiled, and beautifully blotto, on the best Bollinger.
1917		W. Muir Observations of Orderly 230: The words for drunkenness are innumerable — ‘jingled,’ ‘oiled,’ ‘tanked to the wide,’ ‘well sprung,’ ‘up the pole,’ ‘blotto’, etc.
1918		R. Arkell in Bystander 25 Dec. n.p.: ‘Maltravers has merely overieaten himself and little Blaxe is blotteau!’.
1919		W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 12: blotto — Inebriated.
1919		Eve. Public Ledger (Philadelphia, PA) 11 Feb. n.p.: Take two French beers, three glasses of Burgundy, and one stiff whisky, and you will probably feel blotteau.
1928		J.P. McEvoy Showgirl 157: They couldn’t be as enthusiastic as they were unless I was Jolson or they were blotto.
1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 2: Blotto: drunk.
1937		West. Mail (Perth) 27 May 43/2: I musta went clean blotto — I was like a woolly lamb.
1939		Franklin & Cusack Pioneers on Parade 79: Lord Thingamy [...] was rather blotto.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 273: They’re blind blotto by this.
1948		C. Himes ‘Da-Da-Dee’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 365: Now he was blotto. He had been blotto for the best part of an hour but no one knew it.
1958		Casey ‘Kid’ Motsisi ‘Kid Hangover’ Casey and Co. (1978) 14: There’s enough booze to keep Mr Khruschev blotto for weeks on end.
1957		G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 147: It would appear that she got blotto and slept under the drums.
1961		K. Cook Wake in Fright [ebook] You were stung [...] Hit. Blotto, blind, inebriated — call it what you like.
1963		B. Hecht Gaily, Gaily 189: He’s probably blotto by this time.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 15: Every time I got blotto I told that one [i.e. a liying story].
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 71: The boys managed to get more than half blotto.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 61: Big Oscar wasn’t molly or even half blotto because he’d only sunk three schooners.
1999		Indep. 21 July 3: I am drunk, he is blotto.
2008		Islington N.H.S. anti-drinking campaign poster Dec. n.p.: Blotto, hammered, legless, plastered, smashed, wasted . . . whatever you call it, don’t let the Christmas spirit make a fool of you!
2022		I. Fitzgerald Dirtbag, Massachusetts 117: I have found better ways to access my emotions than getting blotto.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 385: [H]e spluttered on his lager I could tell he was a bit blotto.

2. of people, exhausted, confused, dazed, unconscious.

1925		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 9 Aug. [synd. col.] Blotto! what?
1929		News-Chron. (Shippenberg, PA) 29 Oct. 4/3: Jack, the parlor leech crashed a party at Mary’s house. She’s some inkwell but before she got through with that airdale he sure was blotto .
1966		R.E. Alter Carny Kill (1993) 127: You put something in that gin [...] because you wanted me blotto.
1979		G. Swarthout Skeletons 72: So now you’ve been hit on the head and you’re about to go blotto – so what else is new?
1987		B. Chatwin Songlines 46: Hadn’t slept a wink for five days. All these truckies feed on amphetamines! [...] No wonder he was a little blotto!
1996		H. Roth From Bondage 174: ‘When all of a sudden I went blotto,’ said Larry. The spell of unconsciousness must have lasted only a few seconds.

3. absolutely forgotten.

1939

H. Miller Tropic of Capricorn (1964) 178: I am thinking of one woman and the rest is blotto.

4. intoxicated by a drug.

1984		Eble Campus Sl. Sept. 1: blitzed [...] Also blasted, blotto.
1998		R. Puxley Fresh Rabbit 29: Someone who is blotto or out of his mind on drugs.
2002		T. Dorsey Triggerfish Twist (2002) 87: ‘How do you feel?’ asked Bernie. Coleman looked slowly around the room. ‘[...] blotto, blitzed, blasted, blown, bombed, [...].’.