teetotal

[tee-toht-l, tee-toht-l]

adjective

of or relating to, advocating, or pledged to total abstinence from intoxicating drink.

Informal. absolute; complete.

verb (used without object), tee·to·taled, tee·to·tal·ing or (especially British) tee·to·talled, tee·to·tal·ling.

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

Related formstee·to·tal·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for teetotal

Historical Examples of teetotal

Then our teetotal habits do not interfere at all with our guests.
Four Young Explorers
Oliver Optic
As a plenipotentiary extraordinary I admit I'm a teetotal failure.
Sundry Accounts
Irvin S. Cobb
The teetotal apostle says, it is a dreadful thing to be drunk.
The Romany Rye
George Borrow
He might at least have give us ginger-beer, or pop, if he's teetotal, as they say.
Joyce's Investments
Fannie E. Newberry
The teetotal apostle says it is a dreadful thing to be drunk.
The Romany Rye
George Borrow

British Dictionary definitions for teetotal

teetotal

adjective

of, relating to, or practising abstinence from alcoholic drink

dialect complete

Derived Formsteetotaller, nounteetotally, adverbteetotalism, noun

Word Origin for teetotal

C19: allegedly coined in 1833 by Richard Turner, English advocate of total abstinence from alcoholic liquors; probably from total, with emphatic reduplication

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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."