Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to drink heavily.

1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 19: On de evenin of de play I seen dat little dude tankin up like he had a real man’s tirst on him.
1900		A.H. Lewis ‘Hamilton Finnerty’s Heart’ in Sandburrs 63: ‘A good toot will be d’ t’ing to allay me natural uneasiness.’ Thus it was that Hamilton Finnerty went forth to tank.
1904		‘O. Henry’ ‘A Fog in Santone’ in Rolling Stones (1913) 103: Tank up, friend Goodall — have all the fun you can.
1918		A.W. Miller diary 21 Sept. 🌐 Am in Doolaugh’s tanking up on champagne today.
1923		‘Gila Monster Route’ in N. Anderson Hobo 195: They shed their coats, and ditched their shoes, / And tanked up full of that colored booze.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 188: Tank.– To drink.
1932		Townsville Daily Bull. 8 July 5/3: I got properly tanked an’ missed the bus.
1937		C. Himes ‘Every Opportunity’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 247: He quit and went down to the tavern and tanked up on beer.
1958		W. Talsman Gaudy Image (1966) 164: Thought you wanted to tank up a bit.
1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 46: A sheilah gets tanked up on the old amber fluid, puts the hard word on a bastard and then puts the boot in.
1971		T. Lewis Plender [ebook] ‘We’ve had a few in there [...] Tanking up before the last boat’.
1972		Galton & Simpson ‘Live Now, P.A.Y.E. Later’ Steptoe and Son [TV script] They used to give us this when we were going over the top. Tanked us right up, they did.
1975		G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 67: tank vi Drink beer or liquor.
1980		A. Burgess Earthly Powers 28: I saw Geoffrey down a whisky mac in one [...] God knew how much tanking up he had done before leaving home.
2000		Indep. on Sun. Rev. 20 Feb. 63: We’ve also rediscovered alcohol. It’s been good to tank it up a bit every now and then.
2009		T. Black Gutted 84: Fitz grabbed the bottle, unscrewed the cap and tanked it.

2. thus fig., to satisfy one’s appetite, to fill up with food.

1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1999		T. Dorsey Florida Roadkill 181: We need to tank up on breakfast.

3. (Aus.) to fill a vehicle with petrol.

1985		T. Wolff ‘Desert Breakdown, 1968’ in Back in the World 129: Mark wished he’d tanked up in Blythe.
2015		P. Doyle (con. 1969-1973) Big Whatever 20: ‘Why don’t you go fill your station wagon’ [...] I took the car and tanked up.

4. (Aus.) to be intoxicated by a narcotic.

2016

D. Whish-Wilson Old Scores [ebook] Des could see they were tanked.