Green’s Dictionary of Slang

up in the boughs adj.

angry, irritated.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: He is up in the boughs, or a top of the House, of one upon the Rant, or in a great Ferment.
1724		Hist. of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard 54: Two Harlots were up in the Boughs (it seems) Branching out their Respects to one another, through their Windows.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1894		G.F. Northall Folk-Phrases of Four Counties 26: To be up in the boughs = To be out of temper. Lawson, Upton-on-Severn Words, &c., 1884.