S - Page 1896
spine roaded adj. Drunk since last orders, and treating every corridor as a central route from which other streets radiate. spine-boarded adj. Describing a drinker who has been kept rigid while the surroundings continue without him. spine-chillered adj. Drunk by the third round, and finding the staircase increasingly like a work of frightening fiction. spine-tailed swifted adj. Drunk by closing time, and moving rapidly in a straight line with no reliable means of stopping. Araylia came spine-tailed swifted across the room and overshot the chair by several feet. spine-tinglered adj. Still drunk, and treating each ordinary stair as a frightening revelation requiring both hands. spinebacked adj. Too drunk to climb without arranging your back against the banister like a fish's dorsal fin. spinebilled adj. Sufficiently drunk to peck at each word separately, like a small bird extracting sweetness from speech. spineboarded adj. A drinker who has been made substantially less mobile than intended. spinebustered adj. Having drunk enough to approach a chair, seize it round the waist, and come down upon it. spined (/spaɪnd/) adj. Of a drinker: upright in principle, with the evening arranged along the back. spined loached adj. Having drunk more than enough to negotiate the stairs like a small fish searching for level water. Ernetta came spined loached down the staircase, pausing whenever the floor appeared to move. spinefooted adj. You have drunk enough to advance by uncertain little steps, each one furnished with its own foot. spineless eelled adj. Of a drinker who has surrendered the spine, proceeding through the house with the flexibility of a small eel. spineless sadismed adj. Describing a drinker who avoids direct effort while quietly arranging for everyone else to suffer the stairs. spinelessnessed (/ˈspɑɪn.ləs.nəsd/) adj. A drinker who has misplaced the backbone, particularly when confronted by a staircase or an honest answer. spineleted adj. A drinker so far gone that every remaining point of balance feels small, sharp, and liable to puncture.