Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. waggish, roguish [play on SE pickle, i.e. someone who is ‘sharp’].

1684		Eve Revived 41: A kind of Pickled Rogue, an Italian by Nation.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Pickled very Arch or Waggish.
1706		Farquhar Recruiting Officer V vii: His boy Jack was the most comical bastard – ha, ha, ha, ha! a pickled dog.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c 381: This pickled Blade.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 480: A trusty and pickled spark.
1780		New London Jester 73: A Printer, a pickled dog, that used to mind the pot, more than the press.
1812		G. Colman Yngr ‘Low Ambition’ Poetical Vagaries 13: The Prompter’s Boy, a pickled, thoughtless knave.

2. drunk [pickle n. (1)].

1640		‘Mary Tattle-well’ Womens sharpe revenge 172: All sorts of people and Nations are drunk in severall formes [...] a Welchman stew’d as mellow as a Pruine [...] a Scotchman mull’d with drinke [...] an Irishman pickl’d in Vsquebaugh.
1673		M. Stevenson Norfolk Drollery 13: And while they slept secure, in came the Watch / And does this pickel’d Congregation catch.
1812		Spirit of Irish Wit 6: The landlord, a pickled dog, said his wife had p—d, f—d, broke the pot, cut her a— , wetted the carpet, roared [...] all at the same moment.
1842		S. Lover Handy Andy 43: Before the dinner was over, poor M’ Garry was nearly pickled.
1865		Republican Banner 12 Oct. 3/2: The ‘caboose’ is neatly packed with ‘pickled’ offenders of municipal law [DA].
1891		Salina Dly Republican (KS) 25 Sept. 3/2: Corned — applied to a man who is fairly drunk; synonymous with ‘soaked,’ ‘pickled’.
1900		Ade More Fables in Sl. (1960) 168: You were a teeny bit Pickled about Two, when you tried to upset the Lunch Wagon.
1911		E. Dyson ‘Nicholas Don & the Meek Almira’ Benno and Some of the Push 164: The Don, who was a sturdy drinker of native ales, was [...] thoroughly ‘pickled’.
1918		H.V. O’Brien diary 4 July in Wine, Women and War (1926) 137: One old man, well pickled, made a speech.
1925		Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 58: You can come and sleep there if you’re not too pickled.
1930		E. Glyn Flirt and Flapper 56: Flirt: Some of the elderly gentlemen seemed so friendly with each other [...] Flapper: Oh! They were just pickled.
1934		J. Kofoed ‘Another Little Drink’ in All-America Sports Mag. Feb. 🌐 He was pickled to the eyebrows.
1942		C.R. Bond 19 June A Flying Tiger’s Diary (1984) 196: A USAAC pilot [...] got pickled and was arguing with an airman.
1958		Casey ‘Kid’ Motsisi ‘Kid Cucumber’ Casey and Co. (1978) 21: He’s pickled with booze.
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 87: [He] had got pickled to the gills and made an outstanding exhibition of himself.
1963		F. Kohner Affairs of Gidget 112: I wasn’t pickled that strongly.
1973		G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 50: He hadda bar, I think he would have been pickled all the time.
1984		I. Doig Eng. Creek 73: He had finally run out of bottle, and at least I could look forward to an unpickled companion from here on.
1993		C. Hiaasen Strip Tease 14: In his pickled condition, it was miraculous that Dilbert had found his way back to his own desk.
2008		R. Fortey Dry Store Room No. 1 144: Genes, like old soaks, can evidently be pickled in spirits.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 305: Patsy’s pickled [...] and the rest of ’em, they’re bonkers.
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 189: Old gobble guts is cooked to perfection (the turkey, not Dad — he’s only pickled).

3. suffering from a venereal disease.

1741

Secret Hist. of Betty Ireland (9 edn) 8: Her new Lover being in a pickled Condition, communicated the Infection to her.