Meaning & use
drunkard
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Meaning
nouncountableold-fashioneddisapproving
A person who regularly drinks too much alcohol and is often drunk.
Grammar: Judgmental and dated, so describing the habit is kinder: a heavy drinker.
Patterns
- a drunkard
In the novel, the father is a poor drunkard.
The villagers called him a drunkard behind his back.
The old song is about a drunkard who wanders home.
Word forms
| plural | drunkards |
|---|
Common combinations
- a notorious drunkard
- He was a notorious drunkard in the town.
- marry a drunkard
- She feared she would marry a drunkard.
- the village drunkard
- The village drunkard slept on the bench.
- a hopeless drunkard
- The story follows a hopeless drunkard.
- reformed drunkard
- He became a reformed drunkard after the accident.
Synonyms and how they differ
- alcoholic
- Alcoholic is the modern, more neutral term for someone dependent on alcohol, with less moral blame than drunkard.
- heavy drinker
- Heavy drinker is a neutral phrase describing the amount, not the person's character.
- drunk
- Drunk as a noun is informal and may describe a person who is drunk now, not always.
- sot
- Sot is an old literary word for a drunkard and is rare today.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: drunkard or drunk?
drunkard vs drunk
Drunk means affected by alcohol at one time, while a drunkard drinks heavily as a habit.
Practice
Which word best describes a person who is known for drinking heavily as a regular habit, in an old-fashioned and critical way?
Choose one answer.
Drunkard is the old, judgmental word for a habitual heavy drinker. A teetotaler avoids alcohol, and a bartender and a host are roles, not habits.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “drunkard”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.