alcoholic
Americanadjective
-
of, relating to, or of the nature of alcohol.
The fermented milk has a mildly alcoholic flavor.
-
containing or using alcohol.
The bar serves beer, wine, and other alcoholic beverages.
-
caused by alcohol.
alcoholic fermentation.
-
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.
-
preserved in alcohol.
Tissue shrinking in alcoholic specimens did not affect nuclear composition.
noun
-
alcoholics
plural
noun
adjective
Sensitive Note
See addict.
Synonym Usage
See inebriate.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
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:
Senior officials last month described the planned 50% tariffs on Canada as a response to the country’s discrimination against U.S. alcoholic beverages, U.S. dairy products and U.S. motor vehicles.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 17, 2026
Santa Monica put screens on every block of the Third Street Promenade for World Cup watch parties where patrons were allowed to carry alcoholic beverages within a specific area of the open-air mall.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
Constellation Brands STZ -0.41%decrease; down pointing triangle said higher gas prices and economic uncertainty dampened sales of its alcoholic beverages after a promising start in its most recent quarter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
A stunningly beautiful small Caribbean island, with a huge Dutch influence but fiercely proud of their own heritage - Curacao has, until now, possibly been most famous for its alcoholic drink of the same name.
From BBC ● Jun. 14, 2026
After the Georgia legislature declared a prohibition against alcoholic beverages in 1907, Papa quit making or drinking beer—he believed in being law-abiding—and the churches started using fruit nectars instead of wine.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
Children of alcoholics are most often on high alert trying to anticipate other people’s feelings, so they can try to head off problems or incidents before they become overwhelming.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 15, 2022
Her roughly 161,000 followers include former Mennonites, retired police officers, knitters, cat owners, recovering alcoholics, vegetarians, atheists and women married to women.
From New York Times ● May 16, 2022
The decision not to entirely fictionalise the island was deliberate: it isn’t renamed, and there is a reference to its former owner, Frederick Charrington, a 19th-century social reformer who created a community for recovering alcoholics.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 7, 2020
Some advocates trace L.A.'s failed policies to the city's 1975 "containment" policy on skid row, long the haven of last resort for alcoholics, the unemployable and disabled people.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2019
America collected $340,000,000 from tariff taxes in 1911, and $40,000,000 of this from tobacco and alcoholics.
From Germany and the Germans From an American Point of View by Price Collier
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.
