Green’s Dictionary of Slang

drunk; occas. suffering from delirium tremens (see cite 1897 but also see pink elephants under pink adj.).

1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1880		D.W. Barrett Life and Work among Navvies 41: The night before [...] he ‘had been and got the elephant’s trunk’.
1891		G.R. Sims ‘Tottie’ Dagonet Ditties 127: Why the fellow’s ‘Jumbo’s trunk!’.
1892		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘The Rhyme of the Rusher’ in Sporting Times 29 Oct. n.p.: He had been on the I’m so tap, and now / He was slightly elephant’s trunk.
1897		‘6x8’ [Dick Holt] in Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Aug. red page/4: Delirium tremens - ‘Elephants.’ When I first heard this a year or two ago in Western N.S.W., I hardly understood its meaning. - ‘He’s got elephants,’ I was told by a chap whose mate was ill at a wayside pub. Have heard it frequently since. Does it spring by antithetical perversion from ‘snakes’ - the old slang?
1898		Hartlepool Mail 26 Feb. 6/4: Elephants, elevated, drunk.
1909		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Daylight Saving’ (in Sporting Times 13 Mar.) n.p.: Though elephant’s trunk, he was sobered pro tem.
1912		Sport (Adelaide) 19 Oct. 13/3: They Say [...] That Bratten [illeg.] was ‘elephant’s trunk’ [...] after the races.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May: Her Story in Hamilton (1952) 132: Elephant trunk – drunk.
1930		L. Lower Here’s Luck 263: ‘Cocoa goes like that when ’e’s elephants,’ explained Woggo [...] ‘Elephants?’ queried Agatha in a puzzled voice. ‘Elephant’s trunk,’ said Steak. ‘Drunk, missus.’.
c.1940–5		‘Myles na gCopaleen’ Best of Myles (1968) 338: Drunk; jarred; [...] plasthered; elephants; fluthery-eyed.
1943		M. Harrison Reported Safe Arrival 131: Ef you want ter git elephant’s-trunk, I won’t stop you.
1948		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 25 Dec. 6/2: [T]he Crow had recently been sipping a few quarts of fourpenny dark, and was disgustingly elephant’s.
1953		J. Franklyn Cockney 293: He may add that he will not get elephant’s trunk- or he may abbreviate to elephant’s – (drunk) on it because it is half fisherman’s daughter (water).
1969		S.T. Kendall Up the Frog 11: ’Ave a butcher’s ’ook at Steak and Kidney, ’e’s elephants trunk!
1979		R. Barker Fletcher’s Book of Rhy. Sl. 26: He became very elephant’s trunk.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 41: Elephants is to be drunk (from elephant’s trunk).
1991		R.G. Barrett Between the Devlin 116: He was eight parts elephant’s trunk.
1998		C. Fitzpatrick ‘Gower ’98’ on Sussex University Canoe Club 🌐 So after a few tiddly winks we jumped in our relevant trouble and fuss back to the campsite to get elephant’s trunk.
2001		G. Coughlan Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Elephants (n): drunk.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 65/1: elephant’s trunk (also elephant trunk) adj. drunk.
2002		M. Coles More Bible in Cockney 37: It’s pathetic to get elephant’s trunk.