Green’s Dictionary of Slang

fou adj.¹

drunk.

1697		Vanbrugh Provoked Wife III ii: Then sit ye awhile, and tipple a bit, For we’re not very fou, but we’re gayly yet.
1770		Gent.’s Mag. Dec. 559/2: To express the condition of an Honest Fellow [...] under the Effects of good Fellowship, it is said that he is [...] 21. Fou.
1793		Burns Tam o’ Shanter in Poetical Works (1871) 350: We sit bousing at the nappy, / And getting fou and unco happy.
1815		(con. 18C) W. Scott Guy Mannering (1999) 279: Ye black barrow-tram o’ the kirk that ye are – Are ye fow or fasting?
1821–5		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 37: De’il a bane o’ me’s fu’. [Ibid.] 150: Not to speak o’ the doited creature filling itsel fou, which is yin o’ the skipper’s deadly sins.
1841		J. Imlah ‘The Gloamin’’ in Poems and Songs 212: And the flowers of earth be drinking / Their cups of hinney dew, my boys! / And the stars of heaven be winking / Like us — when roaring fou, my boys!
1853		Bell’s Life in Sydney 15 Jan. 3/1: [They] were bundled in [i.e. to a coach], as they were too ‘fou’ to be able to toddle home.
1857		J.E. Ritchie Night Side of London 166: The time admits of a man getting ‘fou’ between the commencement and the close of the entertainment.
1863		Macmillan’s Mag. (London) VII 448/1: And he went foraging one winter’s day across to Tummel Side, and he got roaring fou with Alaster Kennedy.
c.1890		Chevalier & West [perf. Albert Chevalier] ‘Ahn’s Page Ten’ 🎵 I often heard the servants call me ‘fou’ / In Scotch, that’s ‘drunk’, the French can't mean that too.
1895		‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘The Great Calamity’ Man from Snowy River (1902) 171: And when they’d drunk the beaker dry / They sang ‘We are nae fou!’.
1898		J.M. Barrie V Novels, Tales, and Sketches 292: When he’s roaring fou I have to sleep in the wood, and it’s awfu’ cauld.
1901		G. Douglas House with Green Shutters 220: ‘Young Goulay’s drunk!’ blurted Wabster [...] ‘Is he a wee fou?’ said the Deacon eagerly. ‘Wee be damned [...] he’s as fou as the Baltic Sea!’.
1909		C. Nicol ‘Bauldy Kilwuddie’ Poems 62: In that ale-house ca’d Lucky Kate’s / He wad get boozy there [...] An’ there wi’ his crew, the hale lot roarin’ fou.
1913		Sport (Adelaide) 15 Nov. 7/3: Disgraceful scenes at the smoke social. Jack G, Hugo W. Didday, Muldoon, Ben R, and Ned C were all ‘foo the noo.’ Several had to have the aid of the citizens of the town to take them home.
1992		Guardian 22 Feb. 31/4: Three sheets in the wind, fu’ as a puggy (Scots) and feeling great.
2009		Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, MA) 1 Nov. 29/1: You can’t hold a good Scotsman back when he wants to get [...] buckled, fou, guttered, [...] mortal, pie-eyed [...] plastered [...] steaming, stocious or wrecked.