Green’s Dictionary of Slang

drunk or drugged; thus half-gassed, tipsy.

1919		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 38: Joe gimme a mug of white mint [...] Pour it out or I’ll pull the bar down. No — you’re gassed now.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 103: Gassed: drunk.
1937		Nottingham Eve. Post 1 Nov. 7/6: ‘I met a pal or two I was soldiering with and we got “gassed”,’ said an ex-soldier charged with drunkenness.
1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl. 20: gassed up-drunk on wood alki, mixed with gasoline.
1947		R.O. Boyer Dark Ship 213: Anyone gassed up, brothers, will be fined five dollars and tossed out.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 72: He was a little drunk — half-gassed he would have called it.
1963		M. Spillane Return of the Hood 82: She was gassed to the ears, a drunken smirk twisting her mouth.
1971		E. Bullins ‘Dandy’ in King Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 67: There were three fights [...] one in the balcony between two gassed-head dudes over a girl.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 57: By night’s end you’d be totally gassed and ornery enough to punch out your own grandmother.
2007		T. Dorsey Hurricane Punch 224: Everyone in our group but me is completely gassed.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 38: Mandem getting gassed on camera.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 14: He was half-gassed and far-gone panicked.