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What is "abstemious"

Crossword clues for abstemious

abstemious
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
abstemious
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Archibald is moved by the inappropriateness of the gift; he is known as the most abstemious man around.
▪ But such people are abstemious in many other ways, e.g. they do not drink tea.
▪ Gallstones he'd had and, though an abstemious man, gout.
▪ I try to be a reasonably abstemious individual.
▪ In some ways, Livesey seems to have led an abstemious, not to say ascetic life.
▪ Ken, meanwhile, was living a more abstemious existence on stage.
▪ The T'ang was usually abstemious, but tonight his mood seemed different.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Abstemious

Abstemious \Ab*ste"mi*ous\, a. [L. abstemius; ab, abs + root of temetum intoxicating drink.]

  1. Abstaining from wine. [Orig. Latin sense.]

    Under his special eye Abstemious I grew up and thrived amain.
    --Milton.

  2. Sparing in diet; refraining from a free use of food and strong drinks; temperate; abstinent; sparing in the indulgence of the appetite or passions.

    Instances of longevity are chiefly among the abstemious.
    --Arbuthnot.

  3. Sparingly used; used with temperance or moderation; as, an abstemious diet.
    --Gibbon.

  4. Marked by, or spent in, abstinence; as, an abstemious life. ``One abstemious day.''
    --Pope.

  5. Promotive of abstemiousness. [R.]

    Such is the virtue of the abstemious well.
    --Dryden.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
abstemious

c.1600, from Latin abstemius "sober, temperate," from ab(s)- "from" (see ab-) + stem of temetum "strong drink," related to temulentus "drunken." Technically, of liquor, but extended in Latin to temperance in living generally. Related: Abstemiously; abstemiousness.

Wiktionary
abstemious

a. 1 sparing in diet; refraining from a free use of food and strong drinks; temperate; abstinent; sparing in the indulgence of the appetite or passions. (First attested in the mid 17th century.)(R:SOED5: page=9) 2 sparing used; used with temperance or moderation. (First attested in the mid 17th century.) 3 Marked by, or spent in, abstinence; as, an ''abstemious'' life. 4 (context rare English) promotive of abstemiousness.

WordNet
abstemious

  1. adj. sparing in consumption of especially food and drink; "the pleasures of the table, never of much consequence to one naturally abstemious"- John Galsworthy [ant: gluttonous]

  2. marked by temperance in indulgence; "abstemious meals"; "a light eater"; "a light smoker"; "ate a light supper" [syn: light(a)]

Usage examples of "abstemious".

No Indian Brachman could live more abstemious than two of the pack, who hunted in couple, and kennelled in the upper apartments of the hotel in which our adventurer lived.

His body was lean and hard, and he maintained it by regular exercise and a modest and abstemious diet which favored pineapples, Brazil nuts, and Saturday dinners of salt cod.

Severe to himself, indulgent to others, chaste, frugal, abstemious, the philosophic Marcus would not have disdained the artless virtues of his successor, derived from his heart, and not borrowed from the schools.

Most abstemious of all there were the elderly long-term residents who eked out their fixed incomes by rationing their eating and drinking.

For abstemious souls who wanted a nonalcoholic but still tavernlike drink, there was always health beer, a spring tonic concocted from pine chips, pine bark, hemlock, roasted corn, dried apple skin, sassafras root, and bran mixed with hops and malt.