"Legless" is a nice, straightforward image. So drunk you may as well not have legs the amount of times your bum hits the floor.

"Pissed as a newt" has always intrigued me. Maybe Ken can do the dirty on that one as well. Although I do seem to remember crawling through Greenwich Park like this in my university days, so maybe it's an accurate image.

As far as the former is concerned, I still love the article in the Daily Telegraph many years ago:

I always hear that expression as "pissed as a nit". I wonder if that is some sort of eggcorn or are nits notoriously hard drinking creatures, like fish or parrots or skunks? I found a couple of articles suggesting that the "newt" in question actually referred to that sad-faced guy who led the funeral processions in Victorian times. Nowhere, can I see any confirmation that they were called newts. They seem to have been called "mutes" and there is no mention of their drinking habits.

trolley getting sheet-faced

It's little wonder the old nautical types had so many sheets in the wind, what with splicing their mainbraces and indulging in all those sea-shandies.

Sorry guys, we lost this thread for a while. All back again.