What does blitzed mean?
Blitzed is an informal English adjective most commonly used to describe someone who is heavily intoxicated, whether by alcohol or drugs. Saying a friend got blitzed at a party suggests they drank far beyond moderation, and the word carries a breezy, often humorous tone typical of casual conversation rather than clinical or formal writing. A secondary, less frequent sense extends the idea of sudden, overwhelming force: to be blitzed by criticism, bad news, or a hostile campaign is to be hit hard and fast from all sides. Both senses trace back to the noun blitz, itself an abbreviation of the German word Blitzkrieg, meaning lightning war — the term for Germany's rapid, concentrated military offensives of the Second World War. That wartime origin gives the word much of its vividness: being blitzed implies not just being affected but being overwhelmed by sheer speed and intensity. Whether describing a raucous night out or a bruising week at work, blitzed conveys a state of having been thoroughly, almost comically, overpowered.
Informal: heavily intoxicated with alcohol or drugs; also, overwhelmed or devastated by an intense experience.
"He showed up to work still blitzed from the night before."
Strictly informal; avoid in formal or professional writing.
Past form of the verb blitz: to have been subjected to a sudden, overwhelming attack or intensive treatment; figuratively, to have consumed intoxicants heavily.
"The city was blitzed by enemy bombers during the war."
In this verbal use, blitzed typically appears passively ('was blitzed') rather than actively.
'Blitzed' borrows its punch from the German Blitzkrieg — the WWII term for 'lightning war' — so when you say you got blitzed last night, you're technically describing yourself as the target of a military offensive.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of blitzed
Blitzed derives from blitz, an English borrowing shortened from the German compound Blitzkrieg ('lightning war'), which described the fast, concentrated military tactics used by Germany during the Second World War. English speakers adopted blitz as both a noun (a sudden intense attack) and a verb (to attack or overwhelm suddenly), and the adjective blitzed emerged informally in twentieth-century American English, first meaning overwhelmed or assaulted and later, by extension, heavily intoxicated. The root element is the German Blitz, meaning 'lightning', which shares distant Indo-European origins with related words for bright flashes.
How blitzed is actually used
'Blitzed' is firmly informal and colloquial. In the sense of intoxication it carries a casual, sometimes humorous register common in American English slang. The non-intoxication sense (overwhelmed/assaulted) is less frequent and can appear in journalistic contexts. Avoid in formal writing.
Easily confused with blitzed
'Glitched' means suffering a technical malfunction or error, while 'blitzed' means intoxicated or overwhelmed.