teetotal
/ˌtiːˈtəʊtəl/
teetotal adjective: abstinent from alcohol; never drinking alcohol.
Adjective
teetotal (comparative more teetotal, superlative most teetotal)
- 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![1846], Religious Tract Society (Great Britain) (contributor), Jamaica, Enslaved and Free, →OCLC, page 88
- ‘He’s teetotal. Don’t touch a drop.’1960, J. E. Macdonnell, Don't Gimme the Ships, Melbourne: Horwitz Publications, page 65
- Synonyms:
- on the wagon, straightedge
- Opposed to the drinking of alcohol.
- Containing no alcohol.
- Total.
- That's a teetotal lie.1858, Samuel Putnam Avery, The Harp of a Thousand Strings: Or, Laughter for a Lifetime, page 331
Noun
teetotal (plural teetotals)
- One who abstains from drinking alcohol.
- Hubert is trying to persuade James, a strict Presbyterian and teetotal, to come into the pub.2004, Andrea Levy, chapter 12, in Small Island, London: Review, page 137
- Synonyms:
- teetotaler, pioneer
- Antonyms:
- alcoholic, dipsomaniac, drunkard, alco, alkie, bacchanal, bacchant, barfly, bibber, booze artist
Verb
teetotal (third-person singular simple present teetotals, present participle (US) teetotaling or (UK) teetotalling, simple past and past participle (US) teetotaled or (UK) teetotalled)
- To advocate or practice the total abstinence from alcohol.
teetotal meaning in Malayalam and Kannada
teetotal in Malayalam
- abstinent, abstemious, sober
- മദ്യവർജ്ജക, മദ്യപിക്കാത്ത, ചാരായം കലർന്ന ലഹരിപാനീയം ഉപയോഗിക്കാത്ത, സമ്പൂർണ്ണ ലഹരിവിമുക്തമായ, മദ്യമുപയോഗിക്കാത്ത, മദ്യവിരോധമുള്ള
teetotal in Kannada
- ಪಾನವಿರೋಧಿ, ಮದ್ಯವರ್ಜಕ, ಮದ್ಯಪಾನ ಮಾಡದ, ಹೆಂಡ ಕುಡಿಯದ
Synonyms of teetotal
Antonyms
10 more antonymsFewer antonyms
Forms of teetotal
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more teetotal |
| superlative | most teetotal |
| Noun | |
| plural | teetotals |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | teetotals |
| present participle US | teetotaling |
| present participle UK | teetotalling |
| past participle US | teetotaled |
| past US | teetotaled |
| past participle UK | teetotalled |
| past UK | teetotalled |
Origin of teetotal
From total, the reduplicated tee acts as an intensifier, hence T-total. First use appears in 1834.
Words formed from teetotal
Questions about teetotal
- What does teetotal mean?
- Teetotal means abstinent from alcohol; never drinking alcohol.
- What is teetotal in Malayalam?
- Teetotal in Malayalam is മദ്യവർജ്ജക, മദ്യപിക്കാത്ത, ചാരായം കലർന്ന ലഹരിപാനീയം ഉപയോഗിക്കാത്ത. See Teetotal meaning in Malayalam.
- What part of speech is teetotal?
- Teetotal can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce teetotal?
- Teetotal is pronounced /ˌtiːˈtəʊtəl/.
Words near teetotal in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: teetotal (page history and authors); teetotal (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); teetotal (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-teetotal.wav.
Cite this entry: “teetotal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/teetotal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.