Words to Describe Said Activity

"The stories give the dictionary its juice. Where else could we learn that 30 years after the term 'plastered' entered the drunk lexicon, the Arizona Lath and Plaster Institute would protest the use of the term? 'You don't say a person is "shingled," "painted" or "landscaped,"' the institute's executive secretary told the New York Times in 1956. 'Then why say he is "plastered"?' But as anyone with this book will be able to tell you, we do use 'painted' to mean 'drunk' too."

Carolyn Kellogg in the Los Angeles Times reviews Paul Dickson's Drunk: The Definitive Drinkers Dictionary.