Teetotal

//ˌtiːˈtəʊtəl// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    One who abstains from drinking alcohol.

    "Hubert is trying to persuade James, a strict Presbyterian and teetotal, to come into the pub."

Verb
  1. 1
    To advocate or practice the total abstinence from alcohol. intransitive, uncommon
  2. 2
    practice teetotalism and abstain from the consumption of alcoholic beverages wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Abstinent from alcohol; never drinking alcohol.

    "There is absolutely a teetotal society here in the heart of the mountains, and some quarrelsome drunkards have become reformed!"

  2. 2
    Opposed to the drinking of alcohol.
  3. 3
    Total. dated, emphatic

    "That's a teetotal lie."

Adjective
  1. 1
    practicing complete abstinence from alcoholic beverages wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
abstemiousasceticcelibatechastecontinentdry

Example

More examples

"I choose not to drink alcohol. I am teetotal."

Etymology

From total, the reduplicated tee acts as an intensifier, hence T-total. First use appears in 1834.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.