Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The quality or habit of being temperate, especially in the use of food and drink.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The quality of being abstemious, temperate, or sparing in the use of food and strong drinks. It expresses a greater degree of abstinence than
temperance .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun moderation in eating and drinking
- noun restricted to bare necessities
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The fact is that I am a little overfed; but the stranger in the tropics cannot eat like a native, and my abstemiousness is a surprise.
Two Years in the French West Indies Lafcadio Hearn 1877
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"But this here New York was inaugurated on the idea of abstemiousness in regard to the parts of speech.
Sixes and Sevens O. Henry 1886
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Yet Italy's society is hardly less dynamic than Spain's, so other factors must explain its comparative abstemiousness.
The Dry Character of Italian Social Life Francis X. Rocca 2011
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In the meantime, after this one relapse at Benicia, I went on with my abstemiousness, primarily because I didn't want to drink.
Chapter 23 2010
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January's abstemiousness has grown in relation to Christmas's excess, an increasingly commercialised response to the very commercialism that we're all feeling so hung over from.
Broken resolutions can be good for you | Hephzibah Anderson 2011
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In other words, Macfadden preached a sort of liberated abstemiousness -- as the subtitle of "Mr. America" has it, he "transformed the nation through sex, salad and the ultimate starvation diet."
Strong Circulation 2009
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With a rich family and a father who owned a huge whaling fleet, Hetty was raised with an abstemiousness that belied their wealth but money was certainly of interest to her.
Erica Heller: "The Witch of Wall Street," a Cautionary Tale for Tough Times? 2008
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We have 3 versions of Dr Cooper's medicinal compound this time - one brewed by Pete, one by Steve and one by Jasper - and we think that with proper abstemiousness abstention? or maybe that's just for the polliesthe supply will get us to Dutch.
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We have 3 versions of Dr Cooper's medicinal compound this time - one brewed by Pete, one by Steve and one by Jasper - and we think that with proper abstemiousness abstention? or maybe that's just for the polliesthe supply will get us to Dutch.
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Four years, or so, of abstemiousness, enable them to stand an election dinner; and there is no hope of broken heads among a score or two of quiet electors, who settle the business over a table.
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