Adjacent Words

Intemperance definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

INTEM'PERANCE, n. [L. intemperantia.]
1. In a general sense, want of moderation or due restraint; excess in any kind of action or indulgence; any exertion of body or mind, or any indulgence of appetites or passions which is injurious to the person or contrary to morality; as intemperance in study or in labor, in eating or drinking, or in any other gratification. Hence, appropriately and emphatically,
2. Habitual indulgence in drinking spirituous liquors,with or without intoxication.
Should a foreign army land on our shores, to levy such a tax upon us as intemperance levies--no mortal power could resist the swelling tide of indignation that would overwhelm it.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the quality of being intemperate [ant: moderation, temperance]
2: consumption of alcoholic drinks [syn: intemperance, intemperateness]
3: excess in action and immoderate indulgence of bodily appetites, especially in passion or indulgence; "the intemperance of their language" [syn: intemperance, intemperateness, self-indulgence]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 15th century lack of moderation; especially habitual or excessive drinking of intoxicants

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Intemperance In*tem"per*ance, n. [F. intemp['e]rance, L. intemperantia. See In- not, and Temperance.] 1. The act of becoming, or state of being, intemperate; excess in any kind of action or indulgence; any immoderate indulgence of the appetites or passions. God is in every creature; be cruel toward none, neither abuse any by intemperance. --Jer. Taylor. Some, as thou sawest, by violent stroke shall die, By fire, flood, famine, by intemperance more In meats and drinks. --Milton. 2. Specifically: Habitual or excessive indulgence in alcoholic liquors.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Excess (in any action or in any indulgence), want of moderation. 2. Habitual excess in drinking intoxicating liquors.

Moby Thesaurus

Bacchus, Dionysus, abandon, abandonment, bacchanalianism, bibaciousness, bibacity, bibulosity, bibulousness, boundlessness, carpe diem, conspicuous consumption, crapulence, crapulency, crapulousness, debauchery, dissipation, drunkenness, edacity, egregiousness, enormousness, exaggeration, excess, excessiveness, exorbitance, exorbitancy, extravagance, extravagancy, extreme, extremes, extremism, extremity, fabulousness, giantism, gigantism, gluttonousness, gluttony, greed, greediness, gulosity, hoggishness, hyperbole, hyperphagia, hypertrophy, immoderacy, immoderateness, immoderation, incontinence, indiscipline, inordinacy, inordinance, inordinateness, insatiability, insobriety, intemperateness, irrepressibility, lavishness, laxness, leaking purse, licentiousness, loose purse strings, monstrousness, nimiety, noncoercion, nonintimidation, omnivorousness, outrageousness, overdevelopment, overeating, overgenerosity, overgenerousness, overgreatness, overgrowth, overindulgence, overlargeness, overliberality, overmuch, overmuchness, permissiveness, piggishness, polyphagia, pound-foolishness, prodigality, profligacy, profuseness, profusion, radicalism, rapacity, ravenousness, reckless expenditure, reckless spending, riotousness, serious drinking, sottishness, squandering, squandermania, swinish gluttony, swinishness, too much, too-muchness, unconscionableness, unconstraint, uncontinence, uncontrol, undueness, uninhibitedness, unreasonableness, unreserve, unrestrainedness, unrestraint, unruliness, unstrictness, voraciousness, voracity, wantonness, waste, wastefulness, wildness