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 of teetotal
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 for teetotal
Word Origin and History for teetotal
"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."