Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US, also frazzle-assed, frazzled out) emotionally drained, physically exhausted.

1883		Amer. Philological Association Transactions XIV 48: We have also in the South the expression all frazled out, figuratively used, about equivalent to ‘used up’ [DA].
c.1895		F. Norris Vandover and the Brute (1914) 227: What’s all the matter with you? You look all frazzled out, all pale around the wattles.
1901		W. Irwin Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum XIX n.p.: My soul is quite a worn and frazzled rag.
1910		O. Johnson Varmint 335: His neckties were frazzled.
1913		J. London John Barleycorn (1989) 137: We were frazzled wrecks.
1930		K. Brush Young Man of Manhattan 87: Ann telephoned Eunice Hay, who said she was ‘utterly frazzled’.
1934		A. Halper Foundry 135: I feel as worn out and frazzled as you do about it.
1938		C. Sandburg letter 30 June in Mitgang (1968) 365: I am frazzled and punchdrunk.
1950		J.T. Farrell ‘Summer Tryout’ in Amer. Dream Girl (1950) 56: A frazzled audience left the theater, talking, discussing, protesting, and attacking the play.
1951		C. Duffy San Quentin 31: Our nerves were frazzled.
1958		J. Blake letter 4 Sept. in Joint (1972) 121: It is very late Sunday night at the frazzled end of an overly festive chemical weekend.
1961		Brides in Love I:25 July 18: Ever since Marvin had been so unattentive my nerves had become more and more frazzled.
1981		H. Gould Fort Apache, The Bronx 34: The cops were just too tired and frazzled to take any crap.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 358: He stood in the kitchen, as frazzled as London traffic.
1991		O.D. Brooks Legs 28: I’ll be frazzle-assed from lack of sleep.
1999		Observer Rev. 30 May 2: I spotted the frazzled rep.
2005		L. Theroux Call of the Weird (2006) 27: Bob seemed frazzled and I was grouchy.
2023		H. Jeffreys Drinking Culture 25 Nov. 🌐 [W]e didn’t get a chance to talk much and he seemed a bit frazzled.

2. (orig. US) drunk.

1928		M. Prenner ‘Sl. Synonyms for ‘Drunk’ in AS IV:2 102: basted [...] frazzled, fried, full, geezed.
1936		Mencken Amer. Lang. (4th edn) 568: It is to those days before the Civil War that we owe many of the colorful American terms for [...] drunk, e.g., [...] frazzled, fried, oiled, ossified, pifflicated.

3. (US drugs) under the influence of a drug, e.g. cocaine or marijuana.

1971		B. Moyers Listening to America 131: A frazzled young man with glazed eyes stumbled past me.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 71: [of cocaine] In his highly frazzled state he’s always telling the bird that he don’t give a fuck about cozzers.