alcoholic

/ˌˈælkəˌhɔlɪk/

/ælkəˈhɒlɪk/

Other forms: alcoholics; alcoholically

Something that's alcoholic contains alcohol. At a party, the host may offer a pitcher of alcoholic punch and another of non-alcoholic punch.

Use alcoholic to describe something that has alcohol in it, or otherwise has to do with alcohol. Alcoholic cider, for example, is fermented, and drinking too much can be intoxicating. The noun alcoholic means a person who's dependent on alcohol, whose drinking has become compulsive and unhealthy. This meaning developed in the late 1800s, from the earlier term alcoholist. The group Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in 1935 for alcoholics to help themselves and others quit drinking.

Definitions of alcoholic

1. adjective

   characteristic of or containing alcohol
   “alcoholic drinks”

   synonyms:

   dry

   having a large proportion of strong liquor

   hard, strong

   being distilled rather than fermented; having a high alcoholic content

   intoxicant, intoxicating

   causing intoxication

   spiritous, spirituous

   containing or of the nature of alcohol

   wet

   consisting of or trading in alcoholic liquor

   antonyms:

   nonalcoholic

   characterized by the absence of alcohol
2. adjective

   addicted to alcohol
   synonyms: alcohol-dependent

   addicted

   compulsively or physiologically dependent on something habit-forming
3. noun

   a person who drinks alcohol to excess habitually
   synonyms: alky, boozer, dipsomaniac, lush, soaker, souse

   type of:

   drunk, drunkard, inebriate, rummy, sot, wino

   a chronic drinker