What's the word?

[jimtom]

Posed last night in pub. What is a 9 letter word which if you take one letter away at a time always makes a proper word? Last letter left is going to be either i or a but as a clue my friend thought it was i. I got as far as going along the lines of....i, in, sin, spin then fell asleep!

[geo0939]

Sounds like too much hard work, I'll pass:-).

[JDOvengloves]

SHORELINE
HEROINES
HEROINE
HEROIN
RHINO
IRON
ION
IN
I

Okay - so rhino is a bit dodgy !

[Salty]

how about....
arresting
earrings
angrier
ringer
reign
grin
gin
in
i

[Salty]

or....
a
at
act
chat
latch
chalet
satchel
chattels
latchkeys

[Salty]

No sorry, latchkeys doesn't work!

[Salty]

Should be...
a
at
act
chat
latch
chalet
satchel
chastely
latchkeys

[jimtom]

Thanks for all the hard work,guys ! I'll now proceed back to the watering hole with your answers.

Jim

[jimtom]

Oh, dear! Word on the street is that you can't move the position of the letters so the previous answers don't work, sorry. This makes task much harder.

Jim

[Murielmci]

startling
starling
staring
string
sting
sing
sin
in
i

[jimtom]

Thanks Muriel, that's a good one! Works perfectly, now all I've got to do is convince them at pub that I thought of answer myself. They'll never beleive it! Better give AB the credit.

Jim