Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. very drunk.

1737		B. Franklin ‘Drinker’s Dict.’ in Memoirs I (1859) 496/2: A man is drunk [...] He is cock-eyed.
1821		‘Letter from a Highwayman’ in Morn. Post 13 Dec. 4/3: It is all over for us. Bill and me are both condemned [by] that cock-eyed fellow that passes for a judge.
1842		Flash (NY) 31 July n.p.: Paterson Wants to Know [...] If a certain cockeyed grocery clerk succeeded in getting that woman off the canal boat.
1849		Paul Pry 12 Mar. 3/2: Paul Advises [...] Mr. M. E—, the coach painter, of Maidenhead, not to get so drunk. [...] How about the cock-eyed girl?
1881		Wkly Wisconsin (Milwaukee, WI) 25 May 2/3: ‘Lock-Eyed Frank’ [sic] is not considered a bad man, although he downed his man [...] at an eastern town called Dodge City .
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 cock-eyed.
1906		Salt Lake City (UT) 30 Mar. 4/5: He is [...] muggy, [...] swipey, podgy, cock-eyed .
1916		Sun (NY) 9 Apr. 10/7: [List provided by a doctor in the alcoholic ward at Bellevue — terms from ambulance drivers] [...] cock-eyed, dopey, drenched, fuzzled.
1923		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 17 July [synd. col.] They talked of being ‘ginny’ and ‘cock eyed’ and how they were laying for this cop and that.
1929		D. Parker ‘Big Blonde’ in Penguin Dorothy Parker (1982) 195: ‘Like a drink before you go?’ she asked. ‘Cockeyed again for a change, aren’t you?’ he said. ‘That’s nice. Sure, get a couple of shots, will you?’.
1930		J. Lait Put on the Spot 23: A hunk o’ lead don’ know the diff’rence, beautiful, whether a man is cockeyed or sober.
1932		(con. 1917–19) Dos Passos Nineteen Nineteen in USA (1966) 527: The bosun went and got cockeyed with a couple of doughboys.
1936		K. Mackenzie Living Rough 274: Boy, we sure got cock-eyed that night.
c.1940–5		‘Myles na gCopaleen’ Best of Myles (1968) 338: Drunk; jarred; [...] cock-eyed; cross-eyed.
1948		D. Dodge Bullets For The Bridegroom (1953) 26: They had another drink and left the bar, mildly cockeyed.
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 180: He’s cockeyed drunk.
1953		J. Thompson Savage Night (1991) 126: I took a bottle up to my room with me, and I got half cockeyed.
1967		(con. 1940s) M. Dibner Admiral (1968) 215: Damn it, Harrison, you’ll get cockeyed drunk.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 87: cock-eyed. A versatile term, with different meanings depending on context, i.e., cross-eyed, dead drunk, crazy, ridiculous, wrong, askew.

2. (N.Z.) unstable, eccentric.

1953

I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 149: After a short retirement, the verdict [...] will be that you’re cockeyed.