Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. drunken, tipsy; under the influence of a drug.

1770		Gent.’s Mag. Dec. 559/2: To express the condition of an Honest Fellow [...] under the Effects of good Fellowship, it is said that he is [...] 25. Groggy; this is a West-indian Phrase; Rum and Water without Sugar, being called Grogg.
1781		‘I Nothing Is But Drunk’ in Bullfinch 201: Bob Backstay was a soaking blade / [...] / As groggy he in hammock lay [etc] .
1787		Adventures of Jonathan Corncob 79: I am told that you sometimes get tipsy or groggy.
c.1790		‘Larry’s Stiff’ in Luke Caffrey’s Gost 7: Den de gruel began to go round, / De girls began to grow groggy.
1800		‘Britannia’s Sons at Sea’ in Jovial Songster 4: When we’re not afloat / ’Tis quite another thing, / We strike to petticoat, / Get groggy, dance and sing.
1818		M.L. Weems Drunkard’s Looking Glass (1929) 60: The patient goes by a variety of nicknames [...] such as boozy—groggy—blue—damp.
1818		W. Perry London Guide 52: It was to no purpose the groggy man cried off — pleading his ‘inability, — that he was too ripe to lay wagers’.
1822		‘XYZ’ Knickerbocker Tour of N.Y. State (1968) 94: As usual in these cases, the [militia] men were noisy and ‘groggy’. Quere, Why can not an election be held on sober principles?
1826		C.M. Westmacott Eng. Spy II 217: May I never get groggy again.
1833		‘The Pugilistic Feats Of Jack Scroggins’ in Lummy Chaunter 58: Jack lately on a cruise got in a groggy plight.
1835		A.B. Longstreet Georgia Scenes (1848) 164: They’re groggy – mighty groggy.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 8 Jan. n.p.: He appeared groggy, and threw up lots of claret.
1847		Punch XIII 213/2: His drunken vocabulary consists of Lushy, Screwy, Groggy, Touched, Elevated, and innumerable others.
1850		‘Jacob Sidesplitter’ Sorrow-Disperser 19: A sailor, half-groggy, passing along the street.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 81/2: One night an Irishman, who was quite the gentleman, came to me, rather groggy.
1866		Vermont Transcript (St Albans, VT) 9 Nov. 2/4: They were all a little corned [...] and some regularly groggy.
1872		Echo 30 July n.p.: A model of perfection had she not shown more than necessary partiality to her elder friend’s brandy bottle [...] despite the latter’s oft-repeated caution not to become groggy [F&H].
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) I 352: After the last bottle of champagne I was groggy.
1895		Wash. Times (DC) 10 June 2/4: Deputy Sheriff Mulligan said they were too drunk and groggy to give their names.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 33: Groggy, drunk.
1901		W. Irwin Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum XI: Love has put your optics on the bum [...] Ah well! In that I’m in the box with you, For love has got poor Willie groggy, too.
1908		Sun. Times (Perth) 29 Nov. 1/1: After ten whiskies his vocabulary grows groggy.
1918		Wkly Jrnl-Miner (Prescott, AZ) 24 July 3/7: Mark was groggy - drunk - was he not?
1926		Derby Dly Teleg. 9 Jan. 2/4: The tests [will] enable magistrates to deal with a well-defined accusation such as [...] raddled [...] lushy [...] obfuscated [...] disguised, groggy.
1933		‘Goat’ Laven Rough Stuff 105: He was pretty groggy, but I’d been getting rid of my drinks when his back was turned.
1949		H. Miller Sexus (1969) 384: Jesus, I’m groggy and boozy and woozy.
1955		J.P. Donleavy Ginger Man (1958) 129: I’m just a little groggy, I bought myself three whiskies.
1965		H.S. Thompson letter 3 May in Proud Highway (1997) 514: I smoked off a large reefer and went groggy for something like 12 hours.
1982		A. Maupin Further Tales of the City (1984) 36: They [...] sat on a bench in the sunshine, docile and groggy as a couple, of ageing house cats.
1993		S. King Dolores Claiborne 187: He was halfway to being shitfaced, and so groggy I got a little scared.
2000		Guardian G2 3 Apr. 11: A troupe of groggy scallies.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 497: [A] policeman handcuffed a groggy security guard.

2. weak, unsteady, semi-conscious; thus grog out, to become comatose, unstable.

1821		‘Sparring Exhibitions’ in Fancy I XVII 410: He went down like a log, and was picked up as groggy as a sailor three sheets to the wind.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 45: Gaynor came to the scratch a tiny bit groggy.
1834		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) Sept. 6 n.p.: Gaynor came up groggy .
1840		T. Haliburton Letter-bag of the Great Western (1873) 205: I am broken down in health and spirits, groggy in both feet.
1848		Thackeray Vanity Fair I 61: Cuff coming up full of pluck, but quite reeling and groggy, the Fig-merchant put his left as usual on his adversary’s nose.
1854		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) II 153: The Pet [...] was altogether so ‘groggy’ that he was barely able to stand up to be knocked down.
1869		J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 379: The latter finally gained the victory by battering his opponent’s eyes until he was blind and ‘came up groggy’.
1873		W.H. Thomes Bushrangers 397: See how groggy yer is! [...] a child could knock yer out of time.
1883		E.J. Milliken Childe Chappie’s Pilgrimage 24: The flags rock beneath him like a steed / Gone groggy.
1890		Charles Nott ‘Love’s Dear Old Song’ 🎵 Soft in mine ear sang a gin-ial song; And even now, when groggy on my feet, Good old mother’s words I seem to hear ...
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 33: Groggy, [of] a prize fighter, ‘weak on his pins’ from the punishment he received.
1900		Ade More Fables in Sl. (1960) 99: He was so Groggy he walked into the Elevator instead of going out the Street Door.
1910		O. Johnson Varmint 167: Stand up. Sort of groggy, eh?
1915		C.J. Dennis ‘The Stoush O’ Day’ in Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 30: All faint an’ groggy grows the beaten Day; / ’E staggers drunkenly about the ring.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 305: The welterweight champion had tapped some lively claret in the previous mixup [...] the artilleryman putting in some neat work on the pet’s nose, and Myler came on looking groggy.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 86: [It] makes his youthful joie-de-vivre go a bit groggy at the knees.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 254: He was hit simultaneously by Studs, Weary, and Hink. He arose groggy.
1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 115: Ouf, these God damned moving lights get you groggy.
1949		W.R. Burnett Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 156: He felt groggy with sleep and irritable.
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 442: He’s been acting groggy for almost a week.
1969		M. Puzo Godfather 67: Still groggy, Woltz reached and flicked on the night table lamp.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 69: I was groggy, but not that groggy.
1985		N. Pileggi Wiseguy (2001) 124: I was groggy and smashed.
1994		D. Fallowell One Hot Summer in St Petersburg 166: I’m grogging out, want to escape.
1996		D. Cronenburg Crash [film script] He helps haul a still-groggy Seagrave off the road and into the woods.
2000		Guardian G2 29 Mar. 8: Now women have to do without it to prevent the baby from feeling groggy after birth.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 170: ‘You okay?’ ‘A little groggy, but yeah’.
2014		T. Black Artefacts of the Dead [ebook] he was very groggy [...] he didn’t remember falling.