alcoholic

Pluralalcoholics

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A person who is addicted to alcohol and cannot easily stop drinking.

   After losing his job, he finally sought treatment as a recovering alcoholic.

   The clinic specializes in helping alcoholics rebuild their lives.

   Note

   A fairly late coinage: alcohol plus -ic, the suffix that usually builds adjectives, first recorded in 1891. The word also travels well as a figure. Joris Luyendijk, in The Guardian Weekly in 2013, likened the British establishment to an alcoholic who still resists drastic change. Where the 'abuses alcohol' meaning describes harmful drinking, this one names addiction itself: the inability to stop.

2. 2
   adjective

   Containing more than a trace amount of alcohol.

   The menu clearly separates the alcoholic beverages from the juices and sodas.

   Many alcoholic ciders contain around five percent alcohol by volume.

   Similarintoxicating

   Oppositenonalcoholic

   Note

   Unlike many adjectives that classify things, this one comes in degrees. A drink can be more alcoholic than another, and food can taste excessively alcoholic, as some sour oysters did. Its most common partner is beverage. An alcoholic beverage is what one orders, and the official Lao News Agency (KPL) used the phrase "tainted alcoholic beverages" in 2024.

3. 3
   adjective

   Relating to alcoholism, or caused by and affected by it.

   The patient was admitted with alcoholic hepatitis after years of drinking.

   Doctors documented the alcoholic damage to his liver and pancreas.

4. 4
   adjective

   Relating to alcohol or involving it as a substance.

   Yeast carries out the alcoholic fermentation used in brewing.

   The chemist examined the alcoholic solution under the microscope.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A person who abuses alcohol by drinking to harmful excess.

   The counselor described patterns common among alcoholics who deny their problem.

   As an alcoholic, he spent most of his paycheck on liquor.

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