Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. drunk.

1616–20		Middleton Mayor of Quinborough (1661) V i: And what’s the News with thee, thou well stew’d Footman?
1633		Rowley Match at Midnight I i: ’Snailes my shooes are as pale as the cheek of a stewd Pander.
1640		H. Mill Nights Search letter by Brewer: Some punke, Some bawd half-stew’d, some snuffing pander drunk.
c.1700		London-Bawd (1705) Ch. i: Let any Gentleman send for Ten Pottles of Wine in her House, he shall have but Ten Quarts; and if he want it that way, let him pay for’t and take it out in Stew’d flesh.
1737		Pennsylvania Gazette 6 Jan. 2: The Drinkers Dictionary... Stew’d.
1851		Kalida Venture (OH) 11 Apr. 2/4: Drunk [...] stewed.
1864		London Standard 13 Dec. 3/3: Slang synonyms for mild intoxication [...] Stewed [...] Winey.
1871		A.A. Wright Diary in Wright Generations of Men (1959) 63: A very jolly party, [...] we kept it up till daylight. I got pretty well stewed.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 78: Jimmy’s turble when he’s stewed!
1915		O.O. McIntyre N.Y. Day by Day 27 Dec. [synd. col.] In the rowdy-dow places it seems to be the main ambition [...] to get plain, old-fashioned, hell-roaringly stewed.
1919		W.J. Schira diary 26 Feb. 🌐 I am pretty well stewed up tonight.
1927		W. Edge Main Stem 138: In our room, about an hour later, she was so damn’ stewed.
1930		E. Glyn Flirt and Flapper 59: Flapper: [Making whoopee] means to paint the town red — kill time — go on a party — get stewed [...] run wild.
1931		D. Runyon ‘Romance in the Roaring Forties’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 32: One-eyed Solly Abrahams is a little stewed up.
1933		W.R. Burnett Dark Hazard (1934) 22: He [...] got stewed on somebody else’s whisky, and bet the whole twenty on a hundred-to-one shot.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 95: The jingle might be something that just happened to run through his head while he was getting himself stewed up.
1959		D. Niland Big Smoke 110: Perhaps it was a soldier. That’s not unlikely. Half-stewed perhaps. Needing a sleep perhaps.
1964		P. Larkin ‘A Study of Reading Habits’ in Whitsun Weddings 31: Get stewed: / Books are a load of crap.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 328: Those drunks [...] I remained stewed for my usual three weeks.
1971		(con. WWII) B. Aldiss Soldier Erect 19: It only needs old Church to get a bit stewed and all hell will break loose.
1988		R. McGough An Imaginary Menagerie 106: Preferring plonk to food / it drinks all day / until it’s stewed.
1992		S. Armitage ‘Robinson’s Life Sentence’ in Kid 59: Get stewed / on straight gin.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 327: Then some half-stewed journo [...] said of one particularly persistent and durable punter [...] ‘Oh yes. I’ve noticed him all right’.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 43: He’d been outdrinking her two to one and now he was stewed.

2. fig. use of sense 1, i.e. empassioned, crazy or foolish.

1914		T. McNamara Us Boys 16 July [synd. cartoon strip] Now wait a minit don’t get all stewed up. Lemme exclaim.
1930		M. West Babe Gordon (1934) 111: No use gettin’ yourself stewed up over what can’t be helped.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 359: She must be stewed going out with you. You must have sold her the whole line.
1989		R. Dahl Rhyme Stew (1990) 53: Like this lot here. They’re all half-stewed! / They’re all completely round the bend!

3. (drugs) intoxicated by a drug.

2002

T. Dorsey Triggerfish Twist (2002) 87: ‘How do you feel?’ asked Bernie. Coleman looked slowly around the room. ‘[...] stewed, baked, fried, cooked, toasted, roasted [...]’.