Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. eccentric, insane, crazy.

1846		Bell’s Life in Sydney 26 Dec. 2/5: This little gipsy since she danced the polka with Mr. Kemhle, has fairly got ‘a bee in her bonnet’, in other words, to use a Yorkshire phrase, she appears ‘not to be all there’.
1864		M Gatty Parables from Nature Ser. 4 3: Hans Jansen was what is commonly called not all there; that is, he could not see and comprehend the things of this life as his neighbours did .
1865		Portland Guardian (Vic.) 23 Jan. 2/6: The natives are primitive, and the real Guernsey man, you would be inclined to think was, to use a ‘slang phrase,’ not all there.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 220: He stayed in a place doing the grand, and sucking the flats, till the folks began to smoke him as not all there.
1893		N.H. Kennard Diogenes’ Sandals 176: They said in the village that he had not ‘got all his buttons’, meaning that he was not ‘all there’.
1902		Monroe City Democrat (MO) 27 Mar. 2/1: Dick was [...] his enemies said, non compos mentis, his friends, apologetically, that he was not ‘all there’.
1908		L. Doyle Ballygullion 153: An’ it come over me whin I looked at him that, sure enough, he wasn’t all there.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 439: His submission is that he is of Mongolian extraction and irresponsible for his actions. Not all there, in fact.
1937		[perf. Ella Shields] I’m Not All There 🎵 I’m not all there / There’s something missing / I’m not all there.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 69: Please don’t take no notice of poor Frank, Mister Shillingsworth. I’m afraid he’s not all there.
1946		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 263: He fucked it all night, / Then died of the fright / That maybe he wasn’t ‘all there’.
1951		M. Spillane One Lonely Night 82: He tapped his head and made a screwy face. ‘Not all there, ya know.’.
1966		C. Stead Cotters’ England (1980) 286: He’s not all there: there’s a part missing.
1979		H. Leonard A Life (1981) Act II: Honestly, you’re not all there, you know that? [...] You’re as cracked as your oul’ fella was.
1987		(con. 1920s) L. Redmond Emerald Square 178: I felt strangely attracted to this man, even though he was supposed to be ‘not all there’.
1990		in D. Campbell That Was Business, This Is Personal 22: My few mates in jail used to think, I’m sure, that I wasn’t all there.
1997		J. Birmingham Tasmanian Babes Fiasco (1998) 79: Guess you’d have to be a little elsewhere to have lived with Jordan and want to climb in the sack with him.
2005		B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 54: Kara, you’re not all there, love. You need your head examining.
2020		A. Parks Bobby March Will Live Forever 132: ‘He might not be all there, but that doesn’t mean—’.
2022		A. Parks May God Forgive 141: ‘She was definitely something. Not there half the time’.

2. drunk.

1934

H. Miller Tropic of Cancer (1963) 175: Once in a while I’d get too much of a skinful and I’d have to stick my finger down my throat — because it’s hard to read proof when you’re not all there.