Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) vague, befuddled, dizzy or unwell, esp. from a blow to the head.

1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 103: When she got over lookin wuzzy wid de jolt, she begins t’ laugh.
1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 66: I’m in a daze an’ sorter woozy.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 70: woozy, adj. Confused.
1904		St Paul Globe (MN) 7 Aug. 27/2: She’s only wuzzy. Say, beau, she ain’t dead no more’n a rabbit.
1905		‘Hugh McHugh’ You Can Search Me 33: A ride through this tunnel on a hot day will put you over on Woosey Avenue quicker than a No. 9 pill in Hop Lee’s smoke factory.
1915		Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 247: He’s still woozy.
1924		P. Marks Plastic Age 107: You ’ll just get woozy if you stay up any longer.
1930		J.A. Russell ‘Colgate University Sl.’ in AS V:3 239: Woozy: uncomfortable. ‘That subject always gives me a woozy feeling.’.
1930		Hull Dly Mail 17 Sept. 7/3: I’m getting so woozy in the bean that I’m beginning to think it impossible.
1940		R. Chandler Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 69: I think you’re still woozy from that crack on the head.
1942		N. Mitchison Among You Taking Notes 31 Dec. 224: Slightly better but a bit wuzzy after a big dose of dial last night.
1943		W. Guthrie Bound for Glory (1969) 205: I ain’t sick! Little woozie.
1947		J. Archibald ‘When a Body Meets a Body’ in Popular Detective Sept. 🌐 You look whoozy, Klump. Here, take the bottle.
1953		I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 119: Even the wooziest idealist has it over the materialist in one respect.
1954		(con. 1920s–30s) J.O. Killens Youngblood (1956) 421: He was slightly drunk, what with the closeness and the smoke his head felt woozy.
1960		E. De Roo Big Rumble 121: He wasn’t drunk but when he came to the project entrance he felt woozie and ready for a good sleep.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 54: The fresh air was like a blast of oxygen. It made me woozy.
1969		J. Crumley One to Count Cadence (1987) 66: My head hurt and I was still whoozy.
1974		C. Loken Come Monday Morning 106: He felt really whoozy now he couldn’t seem to think straight.
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 27: I was tired, my bones ached, I felt woozy.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 133: He spent the time making idle conversation with the woozy Chemo.
1989		M. Walker How to Kiss a Crocodile 86: My head started to spin and I felt a bit woosy.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 53: Wheezer felt woozy at the warm familiarity of Guy’s use of his nickname and instantly despised his own weakness.
1999		R.G. Barrett Wind & Monkey (2013) [ebook] ‘So, how were you when you woke up this morning, Digger?’ ‘Quite woozey,’ she answered.
2003		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 4: hoozy – light-headed, absent-minded: I didn’t get any work done yesterday because my new medications made me feel so hoozy.
2009		T. Black Gutted 215: I stood up, felt a bit woozy. Immediately slid back down the side of the ambulance.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 157: Too woozy to inquire with the super, John headed up to his apartment.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] Chuck was getting woozy from all the blows.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 211: [H]e’d had a couple of pints [...] that left him vexingly woozy.
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers 115: He starts tae get a bit woozy.
2020		A. Parks Bobby March Will Live Forever 295: [He] still felt a bit woozy. Coke and mandies – not the best combination.

2. (orig. US) sentimental, affectionate; thus wooziness n., sentimentality.

1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 22: The fellow [...] handed up an old leather violin case. That made me sort o’ woozy [...] when I was a kid my father had tried for several years to drum some violin music into me .
1907		C.E. Mulford Bar-20 ix: Then when he got woozy one time she up an’ told him that she had got a nice long letter from her hubby.
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 48: He’s got this Schuyder moll [...] woozy about him.
1998		P. McCabe Breakfast on Pluto 42: One minute I’m there as black and broody as ever a woman could be [...] and the next I’m gone all woozy, like never till the end of time will I leave this lovely man.
2011		Observer 9 Jan. 29/4: We, too, are scared [...] We dress up our refusal to speak plainly in woozy therapeutic language.

3. (US campus) pleasant, enjoyable.

1896

W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 23: woozy [...] 2. Pleasant, delightful. ‘You are going to the hop? How woozy!’.

4. (US) keen on, interested in (other than romantically).

1903		‘Hugh McHugh’ Out for the Coin 13: ‘Who put you woozy to this Wall Street fight?’ inquired Bunch.
1909		‘O. Henry’ Roads of Destiny 64: A woman gets woozy on clothes.

5. (orig. US) befuddled or dizzy as a result of being under the influence of drugs or drink.

1907		Dly Arizona Silver Belt (Gila Co., AZ) 8 Nov. 5/1: All dis talk about is drinkin’ wood alky is woozy language. We was drinkin’ straight alky, and there was no lumber about it.
1927		B. Mantle et al. Best Plays 13: Save for the fact that its youthful hero becomes slightly woozy with liquor, ‘Tommy’ is as clean as a kennel of hounds’ teeth.
1929		Kipling Limits & Renewals (1932) 356: He had kept himself going on rum sometimes, and was woozy when the pinch came.
1931		W.R. Burnett Silver Eagle 34: ‘Honest, August, do you enjoy that stuff? [i.e. beer] I mean do you like to get woozy?’.
1941		B. Schulberg What Makes Sammy Run? 56: I was feeling pretty woozy from all that liquor.
1952		W.R. Burnett Vanity Row 42: She was slender and young and her eyes were woozy with champagne.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 15: Twenty-four hours without a single drink and I was still woozy, still half-drunk.
1978		Daily Tel. 17 Jan. 17/2: Liquid lunches can leave a man weak and woozy late in the afternoon, drinkers were told.
1999		E. Amburn Subterranean Kerouac 171: On the bus from New York to California, high on Benzedrine and woozy on liquor.
2001		P. Sanchez Girlfriends 33: She sat in the back of the cab feeling woozy and nauseated. She knew she would inevitably puke from all the liquor.
2005		K. Huff A Steady Rain I iii: Connie was woozy from the valium, the scotch.
2008		D. Cady Champions 111: Whatever booze he’d ingested didn’t make him woozy at all.
2017		A. Parks Bloody January 11: [of cannabis] Didn’t take long to kick in. He felt a bit woozy, good.

6. (US) old-fashioned, staid [? wowser n.¹ (1)].

1890		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 22 May 2/3: ‘The Players’ Club’ [...] is not a popular institution. It is too exclusive, solemn: too ‘woosey.’ as Jane Stuart would say.
1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 23: woozy [...] 1. [...] behind the times.

7. mad, eccentric; old-fashioned.

1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 23: woozy [...] 1. Foolish.
1902		Ade Girl Proposition 56: They would be giving him the Giggle and saying he was the wooziest ever.
1914		‘Lord Ballyrot in Slangland’ in Tacoma Times (WA) 14 Jan. 4/4: Any time you see me puffing a fag just mark me down as getting woozy.
1917		A. Conan Doyle His Last Bow in Baring-Gould (1968) II 798: ‘The man was mad.’ ‘Well, he went a bit woozy towards the end.’.
1930		D. Hammett ‘The First Thin Man’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 363: He was always a bit on the goofy side [...] And it’s a cinch this magazine stuff he’s been doing lately is woozy.
1953		I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 182: He’s a good chap [...] but he is fairly woozy.