Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. drunk, one of a number of words and phrases that equate drunkenness with ‘getting high’; thus elevation, a state of drunkenness.

1655		Mercurius Fumigosus 36 31 Jan.–7 Feb. 284: The Parson and he were well elevated with Ale.
1664		Etherege Love In A Tub IV iii: The Wine makes the Rogue witty; he over-acts the Part I gave him; [...] I will keep Him thus elevated till he has married Grace.
1703		Hell Upon Earth 1: Those Sinners [...] are pritty often elevated with outlandish Liquors.
1709		N. Ward Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 261: Their Brains were elevated, and the Fumes of the Brandy had robb’d them of their Modesty.
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c 453: One night Hawkins and Wilson took a Ride to Hampstead, and being elevated with Wine, resolved, as they returned, to rob the first Coach they met.
1749		Smollett (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas I 119: We drank hard, and went home in a state of elevation – that is, half seas over.
1751		Smollett Peregrine Pickle (1964) 196: In the midst of this elevation, which commonly unlocks the most hidden sentiment [...] one of the entertainers being more intoxicated than his fellows, proposed a toast.
1766		Midnight Spy (c.1929) 67: Being addicted to drams, she usually comes into this house much elevated.
1770		Gent.’s Mag. Dec. 559/2: To express the condition of an Honest Fellow [...] under the Effects of good Fellowship, it is said that he is [...] 34. Elevated.
1788		G.A. Stevens Adventures of a Speculist I 240: We returned to London, being a little elevated with liquor.
1804		C.L. Lewes Comic Sketches 26: The Beau would say he was, ‘Hocus, Non se ipse, Elevated, Electrified, or, Non Compos Mentis’.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 248: Tom [...] being elevated with wine, the various modes he took of introducing himself to the females [...] produced considerable mirth and laughter.
1836		‘Cat’s-Meat Nell’ in Cockchafer 5: Elewated with liquor, I felt no dread, / And thought as how I’d buss her.
1843–44		Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit (1995) 147: He is supposed to be a little elevated; and nobody heeds him.
1845		‘ Week in Oxford’ in Bell’s Life in Sydney 8 Nov. 4/2: They were all considerably elevated above their diurnal medium.
1847		[A. Harris] (con. 1820s) Settlers & Convicts 12: The men were either quite intoxicated or much elevated by liquor.
1853		R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 210: Whether it was the excellence of the beverage, or that his lordship was unaccustomed to wine-drinking [but] his lordship was what the ladies call rather elevated.
1862		Thackeray Adventures of Philip (1899) 381: Not the worse for last night? Some of us were a little elevated, I think!
1868		Dly Ohio Statesman 16 Oct. 3/2: Elizabeth indulged too freely in benzine and other cordials used by the ladies of the ton, and became inflated, elevated, set up — drunk.
1870		Mercury (Hobart) 23 Apr. 2/5: [from the Stranraer Free Press] [...] spiffed [...] rather touched [...] elevated.
1877		Eve. Teleg. (Angus, Scot.) 23 Nov. n.p.: Some of the country people [...] got a little ‘elevated’.
1887		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Oct. 12/1: You might as well expect a man to get ‘elevated’ on toast-water.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 15 Apr. 1/6: A gentleman in rather an elevated condition sauntered into a Sydney church last Sunday [...] He seemed to be under the impression that was some kind of entertainment.
1895		Mirror of Life 6 Apr. 14/1: Kilrain came very ‘elevated’ upon the stage, and in trying to bit Mitchell, Kilrain fell [...] at which the spectators began to hiss vociferously.
1901		Manchester Courier 6 July 12/1: An American paper gives a list of 200 ways of describing when a man is intoxicated. [...] he is elevated.
1908		G. Seagram Bushman All 88: A man is pretty full when he is elevated.
1916		‘Anzac’ On the Anzac Trail 27: [M]any soldiers of the Dominion [...] were in a slightly ‘elevated’ condition.
1928		M. Prenner ‘Sl. Synonyms for ‘Drunk’’ in AS IV:2 102: basted, blind, blotto, boiled, boozed, bunned, canned, cockeyed, elevated.
1931		A. Hardin ‘Volstead English’ in AS VII:2 88: Terms referring to the state of intoxication: [...] Verbs: Elevated.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.

2. of a pimp, professional.

2014

R.J. Martin ‘Pimp Game ’76’ in ThugLit Jan. [ebook] Tony [...] got chosen by a white woman named Luanne and became an ‘elevated’ pimp.