buzzed

1. 1
   verb

   Past tense and past participle of buzz.

   Bees buzzed lazily around the open jars of honey.

   The crowd buzzed with excitement before the show began.

   Note

   One spelling does both jobs of the past: the simple past (the bees buzzed) and the participle after have (had buzzed). Most uses are intransitive, describing bees, crowds or a busy room. The transitive meaning, to spread a report in whispers, also allows a passive, as in the news was buzzed about the town.

2. 2
   adjectiveslang

   Slightly drunk; mildly affected by alcohol but not fully intoxicated.

   He was pleasantly buzzed after a couple of glasses of wine.

   By midnight half the wedding guests were buzzed and dancing.

   Similarblasted, bombed, besotted, boozy, blitzed

   Oppositesober

   Note

   Slang that keeps its register wherever it goes. It suits conversation and fiction but not a medical or legal report, where intoxicated does the work. Megan Nolan's Acts of Desperation (2021) pairs it with lit, "buzzed and lit," doubling the slang for the same warm stage. It is gradable, so a little buzzed and more buzzed both sound natural.

3. 3
   adjective

   Of the lips, slightly parted and tensed so that air forced out from the lungs makes them vibrate with a buzzing sound.

   Like the lip vibration a trumpeter uses to get a note going.

   The teacher demonstrated how buzzed lips set the whole brass tone in motion.

   Keeping his lips buzzed and steady, the trumpeter held a long, even note.

   Note

   A musician's adjective that applies to one thing only: lips. It can stand before the noun (buzzed lips) or after it (keep the lips buzzed). The same vibration lets a player coax a trombone-like tone from an empty glass or stoneware jug. Keep it apart from the slang "tipsy" sense, since buzzed lips have nothing to do with drink.

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