Green’s Dictionary of Slang

budgy adj.

drunk.

1855		Broadway Belle (NY) 1 Jan. n.p.: Tom must have been [...] ‘budgey’ when he wrote it [i.e. a play script].
1855		Broadway Belle (N.Y.) 29 Oct. 1/3–4: My knibbs has been faked by the napping cullys for being budgey, and, in default of tipping ten slums, I have been sherried in this quisby cap for ten days.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 10 June 3/2: Florio’s ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ opera was produced [...] before a ‘budgy’ crowd [...] There had been so much preliminary wining and dining that not one [...] was in a condition to distinguish the blare of a fish-horn from the mellifluous melody of a flute.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 213: budgy, intoxicated.
1921		Conklin & Root Ways of The Circus 241: Pestered by some ‘budgy’ guy.