teetotal
Americanadjective
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of or relating to, advocating, or pledged to total abstinence from intoxicating drink.
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Informal. absolute; complete.
verb (used without object)
adjective
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of, relating to, or practising abstinence from alcoholic drink
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dialect complete
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of teetotal
Reduplicated variant of total, coined by R. Turner, of Preston, England, in 1833, in a speech advocating total abstinence from alcoholic drinks
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:
Zero-alcohol beers helped drive sales last year, the company said, as the teetotal portfolio, led by Corona Cero, surged 34% on year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026
For quite a few people, this teetotal millennial - he had his 40th birthday during the first lockdown - appeared to be a reassuringly steady hand at the tiller.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2022
Unlike those moguls, he’s a buff, teetotal vegan with spartan tastes.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 27, 2021
For quite a few people, this teetotal millennial - he had his 40th birthday during lockdown - has appeared to be a reassuringly steady hand at the tiller.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2020
Are dyspepsia and indigestion to reduce the world to a common level of sallowness and pain, to the pangs and palenesses that prevail in teetotal regions?
From London Days A Book of Reminiscences by Arthur Warren
Still, he says, even teetotaling Gen Xers still uphold a certain bar etiquette.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Whether teetotaling, temperance or virgin, they’re just drinks, after all — though I suppose their intricacy beyond fresh-squeezed juice demands we label them something nobler.
From Salon ● Feb. 15, 2024
When the protagonists meet, Michael is a teetotaling, vegetarian writer for TV Guide who’s ready for a verbal throw-down with anyone who disrespects “Felicity.”
From Washington Post ● Dec. 6, 2022
Despite its Mormon majority, Utah is far from a teetotaling state.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 14, 2021
The shop’s name stems from a term of derision for the teetotaling, lecture-friendly Congregationalists who settled the town in the 1850s.
From New York Times ● Aug. 11, 2018
The teetotalling revolutionaries operated for years out of a second-floor office, above a liquor store, far from the diplomatic quarter.
From The New Yorker ● Feb. 10, 2019
Does Paulson, the devout Christian Scientist, the teetotalling college football star, have some secret affiliation with 60s radicalism?
From The Guardian ● Feb. 10, 2017
Too many teetotalling whimsy cats in the scene for my liking.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 3, 2012
Playing a steady, nerveless game, the 34-year-old teetotalling saloon owner came from behind to catch American Walker Cup Player Bill Campbell and beat him 2 and 1 in the 36-hole final round.
From Time Magazine Archive
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