Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to drink heavily; thus sozzling n., heavy drinking.

1908		N.Z. Truth 20 June 6/2: Did His Spouse Sozzle?
1909		implied in sozzler [below].
1920		A. Baer ‘Bugs’ Baer 14 Nov. [synd. col.] The moderate drinker [...] was a man who never sozzled more than he could carry in two trips.
1954		J.E. Macdonnell Jim Brady 53: The layers of red which years of rum-sozzling had laid on his weather-beaten features.
1960		D. Miles Inside Out 13: Much better to sozzle in the sun.
1964		N.B. Harvey Any Old Dollars, Mister? 59: It went s-sonk! and he spat out the bottle top and started sozzling away.
1981		C. Hope Separate Development 41: I’m sure your father [...] isn’t nipping down to the local and sozzling away the housekeeping.

2. (US) to walk unsteadily, as if drunk.

1934

‘The Company Cook’ in Lomax & Lomax Amer. Ballads and Folk Songs 552: Well, along in the fall he stopped whistling at all, / Just sozzled around and cried.