Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) made a fool of.

1934–5

Farrell ‘Comedy Cop’ in Fellow Countrymen (1937) 420: I’m not used to having anybody try and goof me. Get that, lad, I don’t let myself get goofed!

2. (US) drunk.

1944		P. Kendall Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: He might have been a little [...] goofed up [...] but he certainly wasn’t drunk.
1945		H.B. Darrach Jr. ‘Sticktown Nocturne’ in Baltimore Sun (MD) 12 Aug. A-1/1: Somebody had ‘towed’ him until he was ‘goofed up’.
1955		Babs Gonzales ‘The Be-Bop Santa Claus’ 🎵 Goofed on sherry, eggnog, and beer.

3. (S.Afr./US) intoxicated by a drug, esp. cannabis or barbiturates.

1949		Hal Ellson Duke 106: She was too goofed to listen to sense.
1953		W. Brown Monkey On My Back (1954) 63: Flattie must have been goofed up plenty.
1955		Hal Ellson Rock 36: One good drag and you’re goofed to the sky.
1962		B. Sorkin Steel Shivs 48: She was most likely goofed up [...] She was on junk.
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 49: Vinnie [...] was goofed with the tea and didnt bother to say anything.
1986		S. King It (1987) 743: Me and ole Mikey are really back in the clubhouse, goofed up on smoke.
1990		R. Malan My Traitor’s Heart (1991) 70: I was so goofed that I reversed the rear end into the ditch.
2001		Mail and Guardian (S. Afr.) 2 Feb. n.p.: But what has remained a mystery is the extent to which white colonists used the drug. Indications are that some were getting goofed on a little weed.
2005		A. Lovejoy Acid Alex xiv: I’m goofed right now, so if I forgot to mention you in person, china, don’t be all goeters.

4. nervous.

1956

Hal Ellson ‘Cool Cat’ in Tell Them Nothing (1956) 94: I’m all goofed up, kind of scared.

5. second-rate.

1955

Hal Ellson Rock 103: Take that goofed-up record off [...] I want to dance with my girl.

6. crazy, infatuated or bewildered.

1952		(con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 55: ‘Don’t babe. Let her rave with her goofed-up morality.’ ‘Goofed-up, is it?’ The woman nodded ironically. ‘Any sound concept of living is goofed-up. It’s easy to ridicule morality, to call it stuffy and all that.’.
1956		Hal Ellson ‘Dangerous’ in Tell Them Nothing (1956) 44: Man, this girl is goofed.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 301: Man, you looked goofed.
1976		H. Selby Jr Demon (1979) 72: Things were getting a little goofed at work.

7. messed up, ruined.

1960

C. Cooper Jr Syndicate (1998) 43: The rub-out guy had a lot of his plans goofed this evening.