teetotaler

or tee·to·tal·ist

[ tee-toht-ler, tee-toht- ]

noun

1. a person who abstains totally from intoxicating drink.

Other Words From

• nontee·total·er noun
• nontee·total·ist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of teetotaler¹

First recorded in 1825–35; teetotal + -er ¹

Example Sentences

It follows Joe, a hard-drinking PR executive, and Kirsten, an ambitious secretary and teetotaler; when they pair up, she starts in on the bottle.

From New York Times

The word "reduce" is key here: I'm as likely to go completely caffeine free as I am to become a teetotaler or a vegan, but I likewise recognize that I feel a whole lot better when I indulge a whole lot less.

From Salon

The late Harry Reid, another teetotaler and a Senate leader when Pelosi was speaker, had a Dead poster signed by the entire band hanging in his home in Searchlight, Nev. He called it his “prize possession.”

From Los Angeles Times

When Britain’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, a teetotaler, dropped in on a west London beer festival on Tuesday, he was looking for votes rather than pints while promoting a government policy that he said would ease the financial squeeze on some of Britain’s drinkers.

From New York Times

The first mass-produced commercial root beer from sassafras was sold by Charles Hires, a teetotaler who marketed his nonalcoholic root tea as “root beer” to suggest it to working-class customers as a replacement for actual beer.

From Seattle Times