upsee, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

upsee adj.

also upsey, upsie, upsy

[Du. op zijn, on his. A second ety. suggests Du. op zee, overseas or imported, and thus refers to the drink itself, whether English, Dutch or whatever, rather than the manner of drinking; Nares, Glossary (1822), sees this as ‘near to another English phrase for drunkenness, being half-seas over’; note Ebsworth (Roxburghe Ballads, 1876): ‘Like “Wassael” and “Trinkael” the phrase upsie-friese, or vrijster, seems to have been used as a toast, perhaps for “To your sweetheart.”’]

in the manner/style of, esp. as applied to drinking habits; thus upsee-Dutch, in the Dutch manner; upsee-English, in the English manner; upsee-Freeze either, in the Friesian manner or, strong drink; to drink; upsee-freeze cross, to drink with arms intertwined.

1592		Nashe Pierce Penilesse 57: He is no body that cannot drinke super nagulum, carouse the Hunters’ Hoop, quaff upsey freze crosse with leapes, gloves, mumpes, frolickses.
1596		T. Lodge Wit’s Miserie 20: For Upsefreeze he drunke from four to nine, / So as each sense was steeped well in wine.
1609		Dekker Gul’s Horne-Booke 4: Teach me (you soveraigne Skinker) how to take the Germanies vpsy-freeze.
1610		Jonson Alchemist IV vi: I do not like the dulness of your eye: / It hath a heavy cast, ’tis upsee Dutch.
1616		Times’ Whistle ‘Satire 5’ line 1814: He with his companions, George and Rafe, Doe meet together to drink upsefreese Till they have made themselves as wise as geese.
1622		Beaumont & Fletcher Beggar’s Bush IV v: prig: Which is the bowl, / hub: Which must be upsey-English, / Strong lusty London beer.
1622		Massinger Virgin-Martyr II i: Bacchus, the God of brew’d wine and sugar, grand patron of rob-pots, upsey-freesy tipplers and super-naculum takers.
1630		J. Taylor ‘A Brood of Cormorants’ in Works (1869) III 5: This valiant pot-leach, that vpon his knees / Has drunke a tousand pottles up se freese.
1639		J. Taylor Divers Crabtree Lectures n.p.: Ursula Upseefreeze is condemned for her uncivill carriage; as proov’d to be no better than a pot companion.
c.1642		T. Killigrew Parson’s Wedding (1664) IV i: Yes, faith, they have treated her upsey Whore, lain with her, told, and then pawned her.
1660		Cromwell’s Conspiracy in Ebsworth Merry Drollery Compleat (1875) III v: When with upsie freeze I line my head / my Hostis Sellar is my bed.
1675		C. Cotton Scoffer Scoff’d (1765) 282: After we’d eaten well, and much, / And quaff’d it smartly, upsy-Dutch.
1809		W. Scott Lady of the Lake vi 5: Yet whoop, Barnaby! off with thy liquor, Drink upsees out, and a fig for the vicar [F&H].
1872		C. Hindley Old Book Collector’s Misc. 7: upsy-freeze, or upsee-freeze. — A heavy and intoxicating Dutch beer, and called ‘Upse Dutch’. Upse-freeze, a similar drink, formerly imported in large quantities from Friesland.
1873		Graphic (London) 28 June 9/2: He who drew the wine was a ‘skinker’, a Dutch word; ‘upsee-Dutch’ described the effects of a drinking debauch.