teetotal
Not drinking any alcohol, not even a beer.
Also called teetotaler, tee-total.
Updated September 24, 2026
teetotal pronunciation
/TEE-toh-tl/
Meaning
Teetotal means you stay off the bottle completely. In rural Southern talk it often sits next to church, family rules, or a hard lesson learned the other way. Somebody teetotal will take sweet tea at the fish fry and leave the cooler alone. Call the person a teetotaler.
How folks use it
- “He's been teetotal since he got saved last spring.”
- “Mama's teetotal, so we keep the whiskey out of sight when she visits.”
Origin and etymology
Came out of the British temperance movement in the 1830s. Richard Turner of Preston, England, is usually credited with popularizing tee-total for full abstinence, not just cutting back on hard liquor. American churches and dry counties picked the word up, and it stuck in Southern rural talk wherever drinking was a moral line, not just a habit.
Frequently asked questions
Does teetotal mean you only skip hard liquor?
No. It means no alcohol at all, beer and wine included.