Green’s Dictionary of Slang

drunk; one of a number of synons. meaning defective and thus ill or denoting the drunkard’s confusion, thus v. addle, to render drunk or hungover.

1691		N. Ward ‘The Poet’s Ramble after Riches’ in Writings (1704) 16: By this Time we go so Fuddled, / That both our Brains in Truth were addled.
1737		B. Franklin ‘Drinkers Dictionary’ in Pennsylvania Gazette 6 Jan. in AS XII:2 90: They come to be well understood to signify plainly that A MAN IS DRUNK. [...] He is Addled.
1822		Blackwood’s Mag. July 57/1: Mayhap too his head is addled by an extra half dozen tumblers of punch, or by a speech of Joe Hume's, or something else that is apt to stupify a man.
1858		S.D. Bradford Works 178: That flagon last night [...] has addled my poor head sadly.
1860		Spirit of Democracy (Woodsfield, OH) 25 July 4/1: Synonyms [for drunk] [...] drenched, soaked, mellow, having steam up, oblivious, addled.
1896		E. Pugh Man of Straw 9: I am a little addled as it is [...] That last was the seventh this evening.
1999		Guardian G2 30 June 17: This would normally be a matter for the ever-addled Downey.
2000		T. Udo Vatican Bloodbath 87: This Dyson hombre is the only son of that pagan bitch and her fuckaddled bastard of a heretic husband.
2001		K. Waterhouse Soho 132: A game plan was forming in Alex’s by now somewhat addled mind.