sot
Americannoun
-
sots
plural
noun
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a habitual or chronic drunkard
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a person stupefied by or as if by drink
adverb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of sot
First recorded before 1000; Middle English: “fool,” Old English sott, from Medieval Latin sottus; further origin unknown
Explanation
A sot is someone who frequently drinks too much alcohol. If you see someone stumbling out of a bar in the middle of the day, you might be tempted to describe him as a sot. Sot is a somewhat old-fashioned word for a heavy drinker, also known as a lush or a wino. It's also considered insulting and derogatory. The character of the sot has featured in literature and film for years, going at least as far back as Shakespeare, whose famous sots included the drunken Falstaff in "Henry IV" and Sir Toby Belch in "Twelfth Night." In Old English, a sott was a "stupid person or a fool."
Vocabulary lists containing sot
The Tempest
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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"The Wife of Bath's Tale," Vocabulary from the narrative poem
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Fosse, after all, was creating in his own image, whether rendering himself as a satyr, a sot or a snake.
From New York Times ● Mar. 19, 2023
He fired a sot from the right circle that eluded Greiss’ stick with 5:44 remaining.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 1, 2021
Others have pointed out that Molière used the expression “un sot savant” in Les Femmes Savantes as far back as the late 17th century.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 26, 2017
While the designated sot stumbles through said tale, an assortment of familiar actors in period garb re-enact the story as described more or less exactly, flubs and all.
From Salon ● Nov. 29, 2016
“He made a show of chastising the guard for not keeping you safe. Still, the unworthy sot remains in his service.”
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
But Droegemeier can connect the sots for Trump to science, too, too.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 23, 2018
Not to divide the world into the elect who . . . have the answers . . . and the sots who are foolish enough not to be so sure.
From Time Magazine Archive
Despite the many newspaper tales of sots and suicides arising last week from the Bonus payment of $1,900,000,000 in black & green $50 bonds, the average Veteran played a watchful, waiting game.
From Time Magazine Archive
He always called his underlings "big shots," which, in Greco-Skouras, came out "big sots."
From Time Magazine Archive
Who knows if his brother sots are not behind him to wake the house?
From The Dragon of Wantley His Tale by John Stewardson
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.
