teetotal

From total,^[1] the reduplicated tee acts as an intensifier, hence T-total. First use appears in 1834.^[2][3]

• IPA^(key): /ˌtiːˈtəʊtəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

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teetotal (comparative more teetotal, superlative most teetotal)

1. Abstinent from alcohol; never drinking alcohol.

   Synonyms: on the wagon, straightedge

   • [1846], Religious Tract Society (Great Britain) (contributor), Jamaica, Enslaved and Free, →OCLC, page 88:

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

2. Opposed to the drinking of alcohol.
3. (dated, emphatic) Total.
   • 1858, Samuel Putnam Avery, The Harp of a Thousand Strings: Or, Laughter for a Lifetime, page 331:

     That's a teetotal lie.

• abstain
• temperance

teetotal (plural teetotals)

1. One who abstains from drinking alcohol.

   Synonyms: teetotaler, pioneer

   Antonyms: alcoholic, dipsomaniac, drunkard

   • 2004, Andrea Levy, chapter 12, in Small Island‎^[1], London: Review, page 137:

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

teetotal (third-person singular simple present teetotals, present participle teetotaling, simple past and past participle teetotaled)

1. (intransitive, uncommon) To advocate or practice the total abstinence from alcohol.

• teetotalism on Wikipedia.Wikipedia