he's teetotal

  • 1Teetotal — Tee*to tal, a. Entire; total. [Colloq.] [1913 Webster] …

    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • 2teetotal — (v.) pledged to total abstinence from intoxicating drink, 1834, possibly formed from TOTAL (Cf. total) with a reduplication of the initial T for emphasis (T totally totally, though not in an abstinence sense, is recorded in Kentucky dialect from… …

    Etymology dictionary

  • 3teetotal — ► ADJECTIVE ▪ choosing or characterized by abstinence from alcohol. DERIVATIVES teetotalism noun teetotaller noun. ORIGIN emphatic extension of TOTAL(Cf. ↑totally), apparently first used by Richard Turner, a worker from Preston, in a speech… …

    English terms dictionary

  • 4teetotal — [tē′tōt′ l, tē′tōt΄ l] adj. [redupl., for emphasis, of initial letter of TOTAL] 1. Informal entire; complete 2. of or advocating teetotalism teetotaler n. teetotaller teetotally adv …

    English World dictionary

  • 5teetotal — [[t]tiːto͟ʊt(ə)l, AM ti͟ːtoʊt(ə)l[/t]] ADJ: usu v link ADJ Someone who is teetotal does not drink alcohol. He will not be having a celebratory drink, as he is teetotal …

    English dictionary

  • 6teetotal — adj. (esp. BrE) VERBS ▪ be ▪ become ▪ remain ADVERB ▪ strictly ▪ I m strictly teetotal …

    Collocations dictionary

  • 7teetotal — tee|to|tal [ˌti:ˈtəutl US ˈtou ] adj someone who is teetotal never drinks alcohol >teetotalism n [U] …

    Dictionary of contemporary English

  • 8teetotal — tee|to|tal [ ti toutl ] adjective someone who is teetotal never drinks alcohol ╾ tee|to|tal|ism noun uncount …

    Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • 9teetotal — [19] The adverb teetotally is first recorded in America in 1832 (James Hall, in his Legends of West Philadelphia, recorded a Kentucky backwoodsman as saying ‘These Mingoes … ought to be essentially, and particularly, and tee totally obflisticated …

    The Hutchinson dictionary of word origins

  • 10teetotal — UK [tiːˈtəʊt(ə)l] / US [tɪˈtoʊt(ə)l] adjective someone who is teetotal never drinks alcohol Derived word: teetotalism noun uncountable …

    English dictionary