spiffed

English

Verb

spiffed

1. simple past and past participle of spiff

Adjective

spiffed (comparative more spiffed, superlative most spiffed)

1. (slang) Intoxicated.
   • 1953, Jonathan Craig, Red-headed Sinners, page 54:

     “He said you got a little spiffed together.” “Love that George,” she said. “I'm getting a little spiffed again.

   • 1974, Fantasy: Shapes of Things Unknown, page 130:

     He said to me: "Ed Hickey is a little spiffed this evening, or could I be mistaken?"

   • 2012, Donna Huston Murray, Final Arrangements, page 12:

     She got spiffed at the preview dinner and told some people...she said I was HIV positive, that I was one of those Typhoid Marys who looked perfectly healthy but was the kiss of death.

2. Neat, attractive, in good condition; spiffed up.
   • 1991, Reynolds Price, Foreseeable Future, page 252:

     Hunt Wilford again at his peak, years past on the run, and Clyde Bowles happy for once at the prom, all spiffed in his dinner jacket, beaming hope.

   • 2008, C.A. Belmond, A Rather Curious Engagement, page 222:

     But now, when we drove down to the harbor where the open sky and sea awaited us in the pale early morning sunlight—there she was, our dream boat, all spiffed, ready and waiting to take us wherever we wanted to go.

3. Having an associated spiff for selling.
   • 1905, Wilbur D. Nesbit, “The spiffed overcoat”, in American Illustrated Magazine, page 530:

     “Found that spiffed overcoat, have you?” Sanders said, chuckling. “Well, the man that sells it ought to have fifty dollars.”

   • 1999, National Golf Foundation, The Retail Side of Golf: Trends and Techniques, page 47:

     In short, what $ 35,000-a-year sales person with an apartment and a car payment let alone a mortgage and a family can avoid pushing a "spiffed" item that translates into a colder, harder cash commission ?

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary‎^[1], page 303: “Spiffed, slightly intoxicated.―Scotch Slang.”