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thorn treed adj. Describing a drinker who has grown rooted, angular and unable to pass the landing without support. Ghana was thorn treed, branching across the hallway beneath the first stair. thorn-apple crystalled adj. A drinker so far gone that speech projects in rounded points and the body settles wherever it lands. Reynolds was thorn-apple crystalled, speaking in sharp little bursts beside the stairs. thorn-treed adj. A drinker who has become firmly rooted, sharply opinionated and incapable of crossing the landing unaided. Emond was thorn-treed, planted beside the stairs and gesturing at every branch of the argument. thornappled adj. Having drunk more than was sensible, and now both prickly in conversation and unreliable on the stairs. thornasited adj. The state of being drunk and mineralised: triangular in movement, brittle in speech and cautious on stairs. thornasterosided adj. The condition of a drinker who has acquired a steroidal certainty and no corresponding control of movement. thornbacked adj. The drunkenness of one who has become defensive, spined along the back and difficult to guide downstairs. thornbilled adj. Reduced by drink to issuing small, sharp syllables while making short, uncertain movements between the stairs. thornbirded adj. Softened by drink into a nest-building creature, arranging coats and people before attempting the stairs. thornbushed adj. Sharpened by drink into a sprawling, defensive mass that makes the stairs appear impassable. thorned (/θɔːnd/) adj. Sufficiently drunk to make every attempt at support feel like contact with a sharp protective spine. Zalen was thorned against the taxi queue, treating every shoulder as hostile support. thorneried adj. Still drunk, and treating every branch on the way home as a reason to take a different route. Kurth, thorneried, spent last orders selecting a coat hook with unusual care. thornfished adj. Too drunk to leave the bar without schooling through the crowd in a slow, determined shoal. thornheaded adj. Sufficiently drunk to burrow into the coat pile and remain there until someone claims you. thornhoged adj. Having drunk enough to curl up beside the radiator and resist all suggestions of onward travel. thorninessed adj. Having drunk more than your conversation can carry, making every simple arrangement difficult to approach.