Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. drunk; thus intensified in phr. tanked to the wide.

1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 22 Nov. 2/4: ‘You must have been tanked last night’.
1893		K. Mackay Out Back 188: He got tanked at the pub last night.
1899		A. Binstead Gal’s Gossip 97: My male parent, who was a free and frequent librator, came home tanked up.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Jan. 35/2: Next, I heard that Mac. had a ticket for a poor devil of a saw-mill hand who had got tanked and had cursed freely in a public place.
1906		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Brief Debut of Tildy’ in Four Million (1915) 261: Tell the truth, I was pretty well tanked up.
1908		S. Ford Side-stepping with Shorty 16: She’s a nice, decent lookin’ old girl, that don’t seem to be either tanked or batty.
1912		D. Lowrie My Life in Prison 301: Suppose th’ young girls went out nights an’ got tanked up, and did all the things we do.
1914		Truth (Melbourne) 31 Jan. 11/1: Many a stop-out blokey, more or less tanked, tumbled into her arms.
1916		‘Anzac’ On the Anzac Trail 68: I fancy the natives sized us up as all mad or tanked.
1917		Bystander (London) 5 Sept. 433/2: [T]o live the rest of their honourable and patriotic lives , if they want to, tanked to the wide, opulently oiled, and beautifully blotto, on the best Bollinger.
1919		in Columbia Press Yank Talk 21: Sergeant: What were you doing in the village winery last night? Private: Qual’fying for the Tanked Corps.
1920		Dresden Enterprise (TN) 5 Nov. n.p.: He got tanked up on bootleg whiskey and ‘fell in’ with the gang and committed a felony.
1922		‘Sapper’ Black Gang 290: I deeply regret to admit that I became a trifle blotto — not to say tanked.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: tanked up. Intoxicated.
1933		N. West ‘Miss Lonelyhearts’ in Coll. Works (1975) 249: Get tanked, grab what’s on the buffet, use the girl upstairs.
1939		H. Miller Tropic of Capricorn (1964) 244: I never went to her sober, that’s one thing. I’d have to be tanked up first.
1947		J. Maclaren-Ross Of Love And Hunger 48: Got tanked-up night before, had all my money pinched.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 179: We got to do somethin’ if we ain’t gonna [...] just get tanked.
1951		M. Spillane One Lonely Night 128: The guy was tanked up.
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 104: I was half tanked.
1961		M. Braly Felony Tank (1962) 112: I don’t want Lucy in here chewing me out because you came home tanked.
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 8: Gets tanked up and pissed, which is to say, drunk.
1970		B. Oakley Salute to the Great McCarthy 73: Warburton high, Vera tanked, McCarthy stoned.
1975		C. Dexter Last Bus to Woodstock 82: Felix? Oh, he’s well tanked-up already.
1982		G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 19: I have to get tanked up before I get on the plane and I can’t sleep after I get on the plane, so I keep drinking.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 180: ‘We all got pretty tanked’.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 141: Up strolls this tanked palooka whom I recognise as a friend of Dave’s.
1992		K. Lette Llama Parlour 85: Hey, you’re gettin’ pretty tanked up, aren’t cha?
2002		R.G. Barrett Mystery Bay Blues 108: He would have [...] gone downstairs half-tanked on bourbon.
2004		P. Howard PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 147: The three of us end up getting pretty tanked up.
2007		R. Milward Apples (2023) 139: [W]e decided to get tanked up on cherry vodka.
2007		C. Goffard Snitch Jacket 175: ‘You’re totally tanked’ [...] aware that he probably drank all night.
2010		J. Ellroy Hilliker Curse 7: I noticed a half-full jug of cheap wine [...] I guzzled it [...] I’m tanked.
2012		A. Bergen ‘Dread Fellow Churls’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] D’you always get this tanked before you go stake out someone?
2013		T. Black Ringer [ebook] n.p.: Punters paying twenty sheets a night to get into his club and fuck knows how much more to get themselves tanked-up on his watered-doon bevy.
2017		M. Forsyth Short History of Drunkenness 39: Egyptian women liked to drink a lot [...] getting tanked.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 62: Marilyn was tanked and holed up in her trailer.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 180: Tanked up to the eyeballs on booze.

2. intoxicated by a drug.

1963

J. Rechy City of Night 174: We’ll get tanked on bees and pod.

3. in fig. use, i.e. satiated, filled up with.

1969

P. Larkin letter 15 Apr. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 414: Hope you are getting tanked up on solitude & peace in readiness for your next spell here.