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

lit (up) adj.

1. (orig. US, also lighted up) drunk.

1899		W.J. Kountz Billy Baxter’s Letters 42: Every time the general gets lit up, he places his arm around your shoulder, puts his face close to yours, blows ashes in your eyes, and tells you confidentially [...] that he knew your father when the seat of his trousers was ragged.
1905		‘Hugh McHugh’ You Can Search Me 37: The house was lighted up from cellar to attic. As soon as I opened the door I found our respected Mayor, Uncle Peter, and he was also lit up.
1913		J. London John Barleycorn (1989) 166: I wasn’t jingled, I wasn’t lighted up.
1917		R. Lardner ‘Carmen’ in Gullible’s Travels 20: They’re all pretty well lit by this time and they’ve reached the singin’ stage.
1919		W.J. Schira diary 21 Feb. 🌐 Am pretty well lit up tonight. I was over to Eivant & had vin Blank Cuaese [? Curacao] & Cognac.
1920		G. Meek Chips Off the Old Stumbling Blocks 22: If you’re lit up with whisky you can’t expect them not to see right through you.
1929		W.R. Burnett Little Caesar (1932) 67: Only thing with Otero, he gets lit and wants to raise hell.
1934		D.L. Sayers Nine Tailors (1984) 245: In got a whole bunch of soldiers, pretty lit-up and cheery.
1938		G. Greene Brighton Rock (1943) 80: If I hadn’t been a bit lit this wouldn’t have happened.
1943		H.A. Smith Life in a Putty Knife Factory (1948) 73: One night he got vigorously lit and in the early hours reeled to his room in a midtown hotel.
1944		E. Wilson 1 Aug. [synd. col.] [T]hey were always sort of lit up. It seems that alcohol makes some people feel very strait-laced’.
1948		Dan Burley ‘Back Door Stuff’ 6 Nov. [synd. col.] Relaxing with his [the dock foreman’s] [...] old lady in his lap, both lit up like an Xmas tree.
1950		A.L. Cherrill Story of a N.Z. Sheep Farm 73: Most always Pa comes home all lit up.
1956		Mad mag. Nov.–Dec. 30: [...] mainly getting them lit with plenty grog.
1962		S. Longstreet Flesh Peddlers (1964) 322: You look lit up to me.
1963		G. Lambert Inside Daisy Clover (1966) 233: Both of us were lit.
1971		T. Thackrey Thief 31: They was to come home late, half-lit.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 89: Hedda was half lit when I got there.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 127: The laughter and babble from the well-lit Mansions’ patrons.
1997–2000		Da Bomb 🌐 18: Lit: Tipsy from drinking alcohol.
1998		Indep. on Sun. 11 Oct. 32: He always does this when Maureen’s out and he’s a bit lit up.
2002		J. Ridley Conversation with the Mann 63: Most of the time Pop was too lit up and strung out to find his way from the couch to the floor.
2002		Simon & Burns ‘The Wire’ Wire ser. 1 ep. 6 [TV script] ‘He’s lit at nine in the morning?’ ‘Or from the night before’.
2006		F.X. Toole Pound for Pound 231: Lit as he was [...] Dan knew he would be heading for Los Angeles.
2008		Simon & Mills ‘React Quotes’ Wire ser. 5 ep. 5 [TV script] Look at you. Half-lit every third night, dead drunk every second.
2021		S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 82: Andy and Oscar had gotten lit.

2. (Aus.) suffering from a sexually transmitted disease.

1919		W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 32: lit-up [...] (2) diseased.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. of Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: lit-up. [...] a man suffering from venereal disease.

3. (US) showily dressed up.

1928		Horsham Times (Vic.) 14 Sept. 7/4: Oh, Ma ’as got ’er flash togs on an’ Sarah’s lit up too.
1929		W.R. Burnett Little Caesar (1932) 106: Rico was wearing a loud striped suit and a purple tie [...] ‘Yes, sir, boss, you sure are lit up,’ said Ottavio.

4. (US drugs) extremely intoxicated by a drug.

1922		E. Murphy Black Candle 227: Nearly all cocaine dopers write long letters [...] especially after an injection. You get ‘lit up’ then, and your mind becomes unusually alert.
1938		D. Maurer ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981) 105/2: lit. Var. of all lit up.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
1960		Mad mag. June 49: This crow whose lit-up peepers bugged me wild.
1970		A. Young Snakes (1971) 49: I want to see you dudes lit up for a change, my treat! [...] It’s better than gettin drunk.
1991		D. Jenkins You Gotta Play Hurt 68: [T]here was no such thing as a good cocktail party unless you arrived conversantly drunk or pharmaceutically lit.
1999		New Directions Program 🌐 Marijuana-using adolescents refer to people who are under the influence of marijuana as being: ‘baked’, ‘wasted’, ‘stoned’, ‘lit’, ‘blazed’, ‘faded’.
2002		T. Dorsey Triggerfish Twist (2002) 87: ‘How do you feel?’ asked Bernie. Coleman looked slowly around the room. ‘[...] lit, torched, burnt, buzzed, [...]’.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] A song about [...] snorting coke, getting all lit up.
2015		I. Welsh Decent Ride 106: Ronnie, even though eh’s aw lit up, is tons mair calm n happy.

5. excited.

1948		‘Josephine Tey’ Franchise Affair (1954) 82: ‘She sort of smouldered. You wondered what she would be like when she was lit up. Excited, I mean; not tight’.
1957		E. Wright letter in J. Nathan Secret Life of the Lonely Doll (2004) 177: They have had the biggest advance sale to shops that Doubleday has ever had [...] They are all lit up about it.’ .
1973		B.S. Johnson All Bull 227: I was lit up because the present was so uncertain, and nothing seemed to matter.
1992		R. Price Clockers 22: The lit-up look the pipeheads got on seeing him.

6. (US gang) shot.

1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 232: ‘Don’t come any closer or you’ll get lit up.’ They kept coming, so I lowered my piece and fired into the door.
1972		R. Glasser 365 Days 231: Gunship and a loach got lit up near Qui Nhou.
1983		R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].
1998		Mayor’s Anti-Gang Office City of Houston, TX Street Gang Sl. / Gloss. 9 Nov.: lighting up/lit up Shot.

7. (US) angry.

1997–2000

College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Lit (adj.) 1. Angry.

In phrases

all lit up (adj.)

(drugs) under the influence of drugs.

1933		D. Maurer ‘Junker Lingo’ in AS VIII:2 27: When one has contracted the habit or is under the immediate influence of the drug, he is all lit up, on the gow, or hitting the gow.
1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 1: All lit up — Under the influence of drugs.

lit to the gills (adj.) (also lit to the guards, looped to the ears, looped to the gills) [to the gills under gills n.¹]

drunk or intoxicated by drugs.

1931		A. Hardin ‘Volstead English’ in AS VII:2 87: Terms referring to the state of intoxication: Lit to the guards.
1948		H.L. Pease Singing Rails 45: By now I was pretty certain they were lit to the gills.
1951		W.C. Williams Autobiog. 323: It was discovered that S — was lit to the gills.
1956		‘Cordwainer Bird’ Bohemia of Arthur Archer’ in Pulling a Train’ (2012) [ebook] She was obviously looped to the ears but on her — it looked just the other side of wonderful.
1960		Annals of Wyoming XXXII-VI 213: Nobody associated much with the old coot, and everybody knew he hadn’t any money for liquor, so ‘how come he turned up at mealtimes lit to the gills’.
1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 315: Yankee Bill’s looped to the gills!
1987		J. Kelly Apalachin 217: What if they’d seen you, the whole show on view, lit to the gills?
1996		J. & B. Cousins Tales from Wide Ruins 132: I was ‘lit to the gills.’ I just sat there quietly and said, ‘G’night.’ After they left, I could see the bed spinning around the room.
2005		E.D. Hopkins Life After Life 113: I showed up midway through his reading, lit to the gills off reefer, alcohol, and speed.

lit up like a Christmas tree (adj.) (also lit up like a bazaar, ...like a birthday cake, ...like a candelabra, …like a church, ...like a ferry boat, ...like a lighthouse, …like a new saloon, ...like an ocean liner, ...like a show window, ...like a sky-rocket, ....like a store window, ...like a torch, ...like a triumphal arch, ...like high mass, ...like the commonwealth, …like the municipal pier, ...like the sky)

very drunk; intoxicated from drugs.

1907		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 54: Fedinck gets an awful heat on in Paris. Goes to a swell blowout and returns to his hotel lit up like a church.
1908		K. McGaffey Sorrows of a Show Girl Ch. ii: The girl I dress with had been out to a wine supper and she came splashing into the dressing room lit up like a show window.
1910		NY Tribune 13 Mar. 6/1: You mustn’t tear off the notion that Clifford’s a Mr Lush, that goes and gets himself all lit up like a birthday cake.
1911		S. Ford Torchy 132: But you mustn’t tear off the notion that Clifford’s a Mr. Lush, that goes and gets himself all lit up like a birthday cake and then begins to mix it.
1914		E. O’Neill The Movie Man in Ten ‘Lost’ Plays (1995) 192: He’ll be all lit up like a torch tonight.
1915		El Paso Herald (TX 8 May 20/2: We was all lit up like a church.
1917		R. Lardner ‘The Water Cure’ in Gullible’s Travels 192: He was all lit up like the Municipal Pier.
1918		J.M. Grider War Birds (1926) 97: He was all lit up like a new saloon.
1918		Sun (NY) 1 Jan. 14/1: Previous New Year’s Eves would have been surrounded by [...] crowds already lit up like a Christmas tree.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 269: Any Gentleman who had it in the back of his Head to go down to the Corner and get all lit up like a Triumphal Arch could always pull a swell Excuse.
1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 209: On the mad dash home, Rags, which must have been lit up like a Christmas tree, crashes into a fence with his car. [Ibid.] 253: ‘Holy mackerel,’ whispers Nate, ‘you’re lit up like a church!’.
1925		Black Mask Aug. III 31: So I play I’m lit up like a bazaar.
1926		Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 10/2: Lit up like a lighthouse – Brilliantly inebriated.
1927		C. Sandburg ‘Cocaine Lil’ in Amer. Songbag 206: Along in the morning about half-past three / They were all lit up like a Christmas tree.
1927		‘Sl. Expressions for Drunk’ in New Republic in AS XVI:1 (1941) 9 Mar. 70: [...] lit up like the commonwealth [...] lit up like the sky [...] lit up like a store window.
1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 40: We ‘kicked the gong around’ [...] until we were lit up like a Christmas tree.
1930		Betty Boop ‘Barnacle Bill’ [cartoon lyrics] I’m Barnacle Bill, the Sailor. / I’m all lit up like a Christmas tree.
1934		H. Miller Tropic of Cancer (1963) 225: About three in the morning Fillmore staggers in [...] lit up like an ocean liner.
1936		R. Chandler ‘Guns At Cyrano’s’ in Red Wind (1946) 209: Take it easy. You’re lit like a ferry boat.
1937		‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 219: For the ceremony, he was loaded to the gills, lit up like a sky-rocket.
1938		Louis Jordan ‘Barnacle Bill the Sailor’ 🎵 I’m all lit up like a Christmas tree, / Said Barnacle Bill the Sailor. / I’ll sail the sea until I croak, / Drink my whiskey, swear and smoke.
1941		M. Prenner ‘Drunk in Sl.’ in AS XVI:1 Jan. 70/1: lit up like high mass.
1949		Wodehouse Mating Season 36: Gussie got lit up like a candelabra.
1963		‘Geoffrey Tolhurst’ Flat 4 King’s Cross (1966) 45: ‘This is one time when you can hang the lot, light yourself up like a Christmas tree’.
1992		Guardian 22 Feb. 31/4: You’re lit up like a Christmas tree and not a care in the world.

lit (up) like Broadway (adj.) (also ...like Luna park, ...like Times Square, ...like a White Way)

1. very drunk.

1920		S. Lewis Main Street (1921) 389: They all got lit up like a White Way.
1925		Gleason & Taber Is Zat So? I i: On the level, you’re lit like Broadway.
1927		Chicago Trib. 6 Mar. 15/5: One uv the neighbors was haff drunk. The uther one didn’t beleeve in doing things by haffs — he wuz lit up like Times Square.
1927		K. Nicholson Barker I ii: One more o’ them and I’ll be lit up like Luna Park!
1972		(con. c.1925) R. Baylor Detail & Pattern Essays 7: Edmund Wilson compiled a list of words ‘denoting drunkenness . [...] potted loaded for bear canned embalmed honked buried plowed lit up like Times Square’.
1986		Spears Sl. & Jargon of Drugs & Drink 172: ...lit up like Main Street, lit up like the commonwealth, lit up like the sky, lit up like Times Square.
2013		T. Robinson Hard Bounce [ebook] ‘She’s a mess, man. I mean this chick is lit up like Times Square’.

2. very happy.

1987

(con. 1970s) J. Pistone Donnie Brasco (2006) 359: ‘That’s good. Sonny happy now?’ ‘Forget about it, lit up like Luna Park.’.