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:
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
A report from Nielsen last year noted that more than 92% of people who bought nonalcoholic drinks also bought alcoholic beverages as well.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 3, 2026
Constellation Brands said higher gas prices and economic uncertainty dampened sales of its alcoholic beverages after a promising start to its recent quarter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
Cathy befriends young Heathcliff after her rich, alcoholic father brings him to live and work as a servant on their estate perched atop the windy English moors.
From Salon ● Feb. 14, 2026
The smell of Charles—damp, alcoholic, sweet with the linden-water he used for shaving—hung heavy in the air.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
Mr Ashworth is recognised with a CBE for his charity work on behalf of the children of alcoholics.
From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2025
Newsom’s Proposition 1— a proposal to pump more money into treating homeless people who are mentally ill, drug addicted or alcoholics — may finally pass after vote counting is completed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2024
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
When I joined the ranks of temperance workers in 1874, a thought so adventurous as that alcoholics in relation to medicine were a curse and not a blessing had never lodged within my cranium.
From Alcohol: A Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine, How and Why What Medical Writers Say by Allen, Martha Meir
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.
