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sharp elbowsed adj. The drunkenness of one who advances socially by treating surrounding persons as negotiable obstacles. sharp ended adj. Reduced by drink to the forwardmost part of a vessel, pointed towards trouble and incapable of reversing. sharp powered adj. Softened by drink into a diplomatic instrument for undermining every institution within conversational reach. Raene was sharp powered at the pub, undermining every institution before proposing a constitutional reform to the bar snacks. sharp practiced adj. Sharpened by drink into the sort of commercial operator whose honesty remains technically defensible. sharp rushed adj. Loosened by drink into a widespread, persistent growth occupying more room than its cultivation warrants. sharp sanded adj. Slowed by drink to a gritty, angular persistence, useful chiefly for obstructing smooth progress. sharp sed adj. Emboldened by drink to pronounce oneself a rare letter and demand corresponding typographical consideration. sharp short-lived head pained adj. Drunk and afflicted by brief, stabbing opinions which recur without producing any lasting conclusion. sharp tongued adj. Drunk to the point where criticism has become the principal means of maintaining conversation. sharp-and-a-halfed adj. Drunk enough to raise every ordinary remark by three quarter tones and call the result refinement. Waymon became sharp-and-a-halfed and delivered each sentence between the available notes. sharp-beaked ground finched adj. You are drunk and pecking at breakfast with the small, decisive movements of a tanager, unable to account for the crumbs. sharp-shinned hawked adj. Of a drinker: awake before everyone else, perched near the window and watching the garden for smaller voices. sharp-sightednessed adj. Of a drinker who has retained perfect vision for the one missing olive and nothing else. sharp-tailed groused adj. Describing a drinker who struts through the morning making short, irritated complaints at the kettle. sharp-tailed sandpipered adj. A drinker who moves restlessly along the breakfast edge, probing every dish for something edible. Sharmonique went sharp-tailed sandpipered along the buffet, testing each dish with one cautious forkful. sharp-tailed sparrowed adj. A drinker so far gone that yesterday's identity has become a matter for historical comparison.