Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. drunk, tipsy.

c.1855		E. Gaskell Letters (1966) 375: Curious enough there is a Lady Erskine, wife of Lord E, her husband’s eldest brother living at Bollington, who tipples & ‘gets squiffy’ just like this Mrs E .
1866		Sherborne Mercury 10 Apr. 6/1: A lady [...] who deposed to some misdemeanour on the part of her servants [...] stated that one of them was ‘a wee bit squiffy’.
1877		Hull Packet 6 Apr. 5/2: Master Bobby is caught [...] rolling home [...] ‘a wee bit squiffy’.
1884		Sporting Times 25 Oct. 7/2: It’s a great thing to remember at night, when you’re a bit squiffy.
1890		Sporting Times 8 Mar. 2/3: Because they can’t hold their own dose of liquor properly, [they] invariably accuse other people of being squiffy last night.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 80: Squiffy, tipsy.
1898		Kipling ‘In Ambush’ in Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 40: I never got squiffy but once – that was in the holidays [...] an’ it made me horrid sick.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 21 Oct. 4/7: Spare-me-days, but they thought I was squiffy.
1908		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘A Consistent Consort’ Sporting Times 13 June 1/3: When he’s ‘squiffy,’ my word! he’s sufficiently thick, / But when sober he’s quite as opaque.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 July 47/2: ’E led it ’ome thinkin’ it wuz a dog, it bein’ lost out of the zoo an’ ’im bein’ squiffy.
1927		J.M. Walsh Man behind Curtain (1931) 105: I ’ad a few drinks larse night [...] and I got a bit squiffy.
1938		F. Anthony ‘Rivals’ in Me And Gus (1977) 63: If she sees you looking half squiffy she might think I’ve had a drink as well.
1941		A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 28 Oct. [synd. cartoon] I got him so squiffy that it took four blokes to put him to bed.
1947		D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 9: It was a bad show to have said he was squiffy.
1968		G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 177: Quarrelling with him because the neighbours had seen him a bit squiffy down the town.
1984		A. Sayle Train to Hell 117: Everybody drinks lots and gets squiffy.
1984		Benjamin & Pearl Limericks Down Under 110: The local ozone / Has a power of its own - / A couple of sniffs and you’re squiffy.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 297: The driver had refused such a vulgar tip and helped Wheezer and his equally squiffy mate [...] find the fare in small notes and change.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 361: A wee bit tipsy is tha, Geraint? Just a tad bit squiffy lahk?
2007		Skins ser.1 ep.1 [TV script] Abi, I wonder if you and your friends would like a little something? Something? You know, get a bit squiffy.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 81: [T]he Christians and Colonics were ‘squiffy’ or ‘squifferoony’.

2. (Aus.) malodorous.

1905

Sun. Times (Perth) 10 Dec. 1/1: The squiffiness of the Perth water provokes a riot of red language [and] the cause of the odor and discoloration is furiously canvassed.

3. (Aus.) dubious .

1906

Sun. Times (Perth) 27 May 4/8: He will tell them in a jiffy / [...] / her reputation’s squiffy (That is, shady).

4. askew, unbalanced.

1916		T. Burke Limehouse Nights 67: She had brought her friends because, she said, she felt rather kind of squiffy about the job, and it would sort of buck her up if they went with her.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 71: Squiffy, askew.
1957		J. Braine Room at the Top (1959) 73: It makes me feel all squashy inside – I feel, oh, ever so excited and squiffy.
1977		G. Melly Rum, Bum and Concertina (1978) 85: An orgy, a term I felt to imply a Roman profusion of grapes, wine, buttocks, breasts, marble chaises-longues, and squiffy laurel crowns.

5. (UK teen) menstruating.

1957

G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 225: I was squiffy, and twittered.

6. (Aus.) foolish, silly.

1941

Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.

7. malfunctioning.

1957

G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 124: My blasted car has gone squiffy, and I don’t seem to see anything like a garage round here.