teetotal
- of or relating to, advocating, or pledged to total abstinence from intoxicating drink.
- Informal. absolute; complete.
- to practice teetotalism.
Origin of teetotal
Examples from the Web for teetotal
Historical Examples
Then our teetotal habits do not interfere at all with our guests.
Four Young ExplorersOliver Optic
As a plenipotentiary extraordinary I admit I'm a teetotal failure.
Sundry AccountsIrvin S. Cobb
The teetotal apostle says, it is a dreadful thing to be drunk.
The Romany RyeGeorge Borrow
He might at least have give us ginger-beer, or pop, if he's teetotal, as they say.
Joyce's InvestmentsFannie E. Newberry
The teetotal apostle says it is a dreadful thing to be drunk.
The Romany RyeGeorge Borrow
teetotal
- of, relating to, or practising abstinence from alcoholic drink
- dialect complete
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for teetotal
v.
"pledged to total abstinence from intoxicating drink," 1834, possibly formed from total (adj.) with a reduplication of the initial T- for emphasis (T-totally "totally," though not in an abstinence sense, is recorded in Kentucky dialect from 1832 and is possibly older in Irish-English).
The use in temperance jargon was first noted September 1833 in a speech advocating total abstinence (from beer as well as wine and liquor) by Richard "Dicky" Turner, a working-man from Preston, England. Also said to have been introduced in 1827 in a New York temperance society which recorded a T after the signature of those who had pledged total abstinence, but contemporary evidence for this is wanting, and Webster (1847) calls teetotaler "a cant word formed in England."