teetotal
[ tee-toht-l, tee-toht-l ]
See synonyms for: teetotally on Thesaurus.com
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.
to practice teetotalism.
Origin of teetotal
1Reduplicated variant of total, coined by R. Turner, of Preston, England, in 1833, in a speech advocating total abstinence from alcoholic drinks
Other words from teetotal
- tee·to·tal·ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use teetotal in a sentence
He stabled Rosina at sundown, and went in to sneak a well-earned glass of hard cider past Martha's teetotaling eye.
Blind Man's Lantern | Allen Kim Lang
British Dictionary definitions for teetotal
teetotal
/ (tiːˈtəʊtəl) /
adjective
of, relating to, or practising abstinence from alcoholic drink
dialect complete
Origin of teetotal
1C19: allegedly coined in 1833 by Richard Turner, English advocate of total abstinence from alcoholic liquors; probably from total, with emphatic reduplication
Derived forms of teetotal
- teetotaller, noun
- teetotally, adverb
- teetotalism, noun
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
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