alcoholic
Americanadjective
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of, relating to, or of the nature of alcohol.
The fermented milk has a mildly alcoholic flavor.
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containing or using alcohol.
The bar serves beer, wine, and other alcoholic beverages.
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caused by alcohol.
alcoholic fermentation.
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of or like a person with alcoholism or alcohol use disorder.
She hadn’t seen or spoken to her alcoholic aunt in over a decade.
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preserved in alcohol.
Tissue shrinking in alcoholic specimens did not affect nuclear composition.
noun
noun
adjective
Sensitive Note
See addict.
Synonym Usage
See inebriate.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of alcoholic
Explanation
Something that's alcoholic contains alcohol. At a party, the host may offer a pitcher of alcoholic punch and another of non-alcoholic punch. Use alcoholic to describe something that has alcohol in it, or otherwise has to do with alcohol. Alcoholic cider, for example, is fermented, and drinking too much can be intoxicating. The noun alcoholic means a person who's dependent on alcohol, whose drinking has become compulsive and unhealthy. This meaning developed in the late 1800s, from the earlier term alcoholist. The group Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in 1935 for alcoholics to help themselves and others quit drinking.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
