Green’s Dictionary of Slang

lush adj.¹

drunk.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 448: Mortimer also discovered symptoms of lush-logic, for though he had an inclination to keep up the chaff, his dictionary appeared to be new modelled, and his lingo abridged by repeated clips at his mother tongue.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 4 Feb. 4/2: He has been rather [text obscure] in the lush way, and has not altogether lived estranged from the other sex.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1866		Night Side of N.Y. 77: They came in ‘lush,’ after having indulged in a fight with their lovers.
1887		Daily Trib. (Bismarck, N.D.) 23 Oct. 4/1: When a man is drunk he is ‘lush.’.