jacked (up), adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

jacked (up) adj.

also jack

1. (US drugs) suffering (usu. negatively) from the effect of a given drug and/or alcohol.

1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Jacked-up, under the influence of mariahuana [sic].
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
1970		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 36: This is all a sham, this whole show and all its floodlit drug-jacked realer-than-life trappings.
1974		(con. late 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 484: He’s wild, man! Screwy! Jacked off his brains or somethin.
1981		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 339: Buncha faggots hung around the Factory got themselves so jacked up on speed their eyeballs were bouncin’ off Telstar.
1988		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 6: jacked – under the influence of drugs, usually cocaine.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 78: Jacked Up A state of being extremely high on drugs.
1995		J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 263: I was [...] jacked to the tits.
2001		‘Randy Everhard’ Tattoo of a Naked Lady 93: We hit the road jacked on bennies and cocaine with black coffee chasers.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Hot-Prowl Rape-O’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 293: He gets jack on coke every night.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] You go up against narcos who are jacked on coke or speed, it helps to be pharmacologically even with them.
2020		C. Hiaasen Squeeze Me 303: ‘I’m jacked up on narwhal [...] It’s now or never’.

2. in non-drugs uses.

(a) focused, alert.

1944		Ellesmere Guardian (Canterbury) 8 Feb. 2/2: When a thing or a person is all ready and a-rearing togo, it is customary to say it or he is ‘jacked up’.
1987		(con. 1967) E. Spencer Welcome to Vietnam (1989) 57: I never have any trouble staying jacked up when I’m out in the field.
2006		G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 5: Holiday [...] had lead in his pencil and was jacked up big on the 23rd Psalm.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 52: Another jacked-up Joan jumped me [...] Ralphie’s widow.

(b) (US teen) upset, anxious, waiting anxiously for time to pass.

1968		Current Sl. II:4 7: Jacked up, adj. Ruined [...] — He was jacked up after his parents got his grades.
1982–2004		G. Sculatti Catalog of Cool 🌐 jacked up (adj.): Upset, anxious, held in suspension while the sundial ticks. ‘I got jacked up over my rent. I’m hung for the dough and can’t make it.’.
1997		C. Hiaasen Lucky You 149: We’re all three of us still jacked up from last night.
1999		J. Ridley Everybody Smokes in Hell 67: To his jacked-up mind dumping the drugs under Paris’s bed [...] seemed like the brainstorm to end all brainstorms.

1968		‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2 31: Jacked up, adj. Unpleasing, undesirable.
1997–2000		Da Bomb 🌐 16: Jacked up [...] 3. Mean, cruel. That’s jacked up that your teacher failed you.
1997–2002		Hope College ‘Dict. of New Terms’ 🌐 jacked up adj. Used to describe something that is functioning improperly or something that is considered to be wrong: against social conventions.
1999		Eble Campus Sl. Apr.

(d) (US) excited, exhilarated, happy.

1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1973		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 2: jacked – emotional (excited, happy, angry, etc.).
1988		Boogie Down Productions ‘Ya Slippin’’ 🎵 I’m bringin’ back that ol’ New York rap / that gets you jacked while you’re [sic] hands still clap.
1989		P. Munro Sl. U. 114: I was really jacked about getting an A on my math test.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 151: Dick still jacked up on blood – a taste that told him he was still on the muscle.
2001		Eble Campus Sl. Fall 10: Extremely excited before an activity: [...] JACKED UP.
2008		R. Price Lush Life 391: He was going to go straight north [...] and was really jacked about it; in fact it would be his reward .

(e) (US gay) sexually excited.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 109: lusty [...] jacked up.
1977		H. Crews Feast of Snakes 36: The minute I laid eyes on that little jacked-up ass of yours I known I was in love again.
1982		(con. 1970) J.M. Del Vecchio 13th Valley (1983) 437: You get me all jacked up then go thinking about your boys again.
2021		Central Cee ‘The Bag’ 🎵 She wanna come to my flat, tryna get me jacked (Or am I just prang?).

(f) intense, energised.

1987		(con. 1967) E. Spencer Welcome to Vietnam (1989) 1: I am stoked, jacked up. A real macho man.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] It’s that jacked-up prison justice. A guy from one race can’t put his hands on a guy from another.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Paradise’ in Broken 278: He hurls himself flat to the ground, so jacked-up he doesn’t realize that he’s been shot.