adjective General Slang

Ossified

/ˈɒs.ɪˌfaɪd/ · adjective · slang

Twenties slang for so drunk you've gone stiff as bone.

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Definitions

1

Extremely drunk; the joke is that the liquor has turned you to bone, leaving you rigid and immovable.

“He drank until he was ossified and slid right off the bar stool.”
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2

Figuratively, frozen stiff or unmovable in opinion, playing on the literal meaning of 'ossify'.

“The old board is completely ossified about new ideas.”
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3

By extension, dead drunk to the point of passing out.

“We found him ossified in the coat room well past midnight.”
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Ossified In A Sentence

One more whiskey sour and I'll be ossified.
She was ossified before the band even finished its first set.
Don't get ossified, we still have to drive home.

Origin & Usage

1920s American slang playing on the literal verb 'ossify' (to turn to bone). Catalogued among the Prohibition-era drunk-words documented by H.L. Mencken in The American Language and contemporary newspaper glossaries.

Tags #1920s#flapper#jazz-age#vintage#drinking#prohibition

People Also Ask

What does ossified mean in 1920s slang?

It means very drunk, with the humorous image of being turned stiff as bone by alcohol.

Does ossified have a normal meaning too?

Yes. To ossify literally means to harden into bone, and figuratively to become rigid or set in one's ways. The slang sense puns on that stiffness.

Is ossified period-accurate Jazz Age slang?

Yes, it is one of the well-documented Prohibition-era synonyms for intoxication.

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