abstainer

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word abstainer. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word abstainer, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say abstainer in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word abstainer you have here. The definition of the word abstainer will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofabstainer, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Etymology

From Middle English absteyner, equivalent to abstain +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

Noun

abstainer (plural abstainers)

  1. Agent noun of abstain; one who abstains; especially, one who abstains from something, such as the use of alcohol or drugs, or one who abstains for religious reasons; one who practices self-denial. [1]
    • 1920, Sigmund Freud, chapter V, in M. D. Eder, transl., Dream Psychology: Psychoanalysis for Beginners‎, New York: The James A. McCann Company:
      To one of my very nervous patients, who was an abstainer, whose fancy was fixed on his mother, and who repeatedly dreamed of climbing stairs accompanied by his mother, I once remarked that moderate masturbation would be less harmful to him than enforced abstinence.
    • 1949, George Orwell, chapter 4, in Nineteen Eighty-Four‎:
      He was a total abstainer and a nonsmoker, had no recreations except a daily hour in the gymnasium, and had taken a vow of celibacy, believing marriage and the care of a family to be incompatible with a twenty-four-hour-a-day devotion to duty.
    • 1990, William Trevor, “Family Sins”, in The Collected Stories, New York: Viking, published 1992, page 1105:
      'Never himself touches a drop of the stuff, you understand. Having been an abstainer since the age of seven or something. A clerky figure even as a child.'

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “abstainer”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 9.

Anagrams

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia