sot
Americannoun
noun
-
a habitual or chronic drunkard
-
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.
Since last week one of the most notorious hubs -- KK Park -- has been roiled by apparent raids, with hundreds fleeing over the frontier river to the Thai town of Mae Sot.
From Barron's • Oct. 29, 2025
Wang went missing on 3 January in the Thai border city of Mae Sot, which has become a hub for trafficking people into Myanmar.
From BBC • Jan. 9, 2025
But Myawaddy, across the Moei River from the Thai town of Mae Sot, was an especially big prize, given its role as a hub for imports and exports, with $1 billion in trade last year.
From New York Times • Apr. 24, 2024
Mae Sot is now a warren of safehouses, whole streets accommodating largely undocumented refugees.
From BBC • Apr. 17, 2024
Sot is an old word that signifies a dunce, dullard, jolthead, gull, wittol, or noddy, one without guts in his brains, whose cockloft is unfurnished, and, in short, a fool.
From Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 5 by Motteux, Peter Anthony
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.
