Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. Scot.) tipsy, slightly drunk.

1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1870		Mercury (Hobart) 23 Apr. 2/5: [from the Stranraer Free Press] [...] spiffed [...] rather touched [...] elevated.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1903		A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 100: Hanged if I didn’t fancy you were getting spiffed when we had that last one at the Swan.
1909		Eve. Star (Wash., DC) 11 Sept. 20/2: The spiffed gee rolling around in a hovel, bawling out his wife and young uns.
1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of the Wandering Boy’ in Ade’s Fables 133: It was their belief that Elmer would be gratified to know that all the Elect had become slightly spiffed in his Honor.
1921		Dos Passos Three Soldiers 84: I don’t want to stay here till I get in the jug for being spiffed or get a court-martial.
1928		‘Miscellaneous Notes’ in AS III:3 259: The slogans are ‘soused to the gills,’ ‘spiffled,’ ‘pifflecated,’ or ‘Methodistconated’.
1936		(con. 1920s) Dos Passos Big Money in USA (1966) 949: By the time they got up from the table, they were all pretty well spiffed.
1952		E. Brown Trespass 176: I’m just an old bag who likes to get spiffed.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 202: Spiffed Drunk.