Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. intense, excited.

1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 50: Rapp was a little hyped-up Italian guy with pop-eyes and a bullet-shaped head. [Ibid.] 54: I was so hyped-up, I couldn’t sit still.
1968		N.Y. Times 12 Aug. 37: Tom Wolfe is known for his frenetic, grammar-released, hyped-up tonal style.
1976		N. Thornburg Cutter and Bone (2001) 285: Herds of hyped-up kids stampeded the streets and sidewalks.
1985		N. George ‘Rappin’ with Russell’ in Buppies, B-Boys, Baps and Bohos (1994) 47: Russell [Simmons] is hyped for the meeting.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 218: He was a machine, a tennis-playing, treadmill-slogging, weightlifting, hyped-up, over-motivated, ultra-competitive, third-millennium shithead.
2004		L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] Young girls with bare midriffs shared the footpaths with hyped-up guys from the suburbs.
2005		A. Swartz ‘Sweet, Tight and Hella Stupid’ in S.F. University High School Update Mar.–Apr. 2: hyphy – to become overly excited.
2009		T. Black Gutted 41: Gus, just fucking settle [...] You’re perfectly pissed, and perfectly hyped.
2011		G. Hayward Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 3: After I read the letter I was hyped. Things were finally changing for the better.
2014		C. Eble (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2014 8: HYPHIE — overly excited: ‘She’s getting way too hyphie about this game’.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] Levin is hyped [...] jacked on fear and adrenaline.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 49: ‘I’m really hyped about this’.

2. artificial, exaggerated, overblown, all hype n.¹ (7) and no substance.

1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 14: Maybe he hasn’t got all the hyped-up words and theories to explain how he thinks.
1968		Time 12 July 52: The ad is typical of the wild, hyped-up pitches aired in the ‘Saturday morning jungle’.
1969		N. Cohn Awopbop. (1970) 126: There’s no hyped-up gospel about him, no commercial sixties hysteria.
1976		Woodward & Bernstein Final Days 236: [He] charged that the release was a ‘hyped public-relationships campaign’ by [Congressman Pete] Rodino.
1998		Observer 27 Dec. 32: Hyped-up autobiographical books by young attractive women who’ve slept with a parent, sibling, Labrador.
2000		Indep. Mag. 22 Jan. 11: No hyped-up headlines.

3. intoxicated by narcotic drugs, or a stimulant.

1963		J. Rechy City of Night 131: You always ack like youre hyped up or comin off.
1993		R. Shell Iced 59: Look at those kids in front of you . . . they are hyped!!! . . . look at their eyes!!!
2000		M. Collins Keepers of Truth 63: I was hyped on coffee.

4. tense, nervous.

1977		B. Davidson Collura (1978) 181: Then came Collura’s hyped-up sleepless night of 3–4 January.
1980		Eble Campus Sl. Fall 4: hyped – nervous, anxious.
1983		A. Payne ‘Willesden Suite’ Minder [TV script] 31: Look, I’m sorry, I’m a bit hyped up.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 385: Seeing how hyped and uptight I was, she prescribed some medication.
1997		L. Davies Candy 210: It was almost a punch. I guess it was a punch. I guess I was kind of hyped up.
2004		(con. 1990s) N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 388: ‘Armed police, don’t fucking move!’ was the shout from several hyped-up cozzers.
2013		T. Black ‘I Want Candy’ in Killing Time in Las Vegas [ebook] She was hyped, madder than hell.