alcoholic
part of speech
adjective (alcoholic); noun (an alcoholic, alcoholics)
meaning for a pupil
1) An alcoholic drink has alcohol in it, like beer, wine or whisky. tree →
2) An alcoholic is a person who has an illness that makes them need to drink alcohol and find it very hard to stop. tree →
3) Non-alcoholic means without alcohol, like juice or lemonade. tree →
sense in the lessons
In health and safety lessons it explains why children must not drink alcoholic drinks and why some adults get ill from drinking. In stories it can describe a character who struggles with drink. Phrases: alcoholic drink, non-alcoholic, recovering alcoholic.
examples
- Children must never drink alcoholic drinks. tree →
- Wine and beer are alcoholic. tree →
- The party had lots of non-alcoholic punch for the kids. tree →
- Her grandad was an alcoholic, but he stopped drinking long ago. tree →
- Being an alcoholic is an illness, and people can get help. tree →
- Check the label to see if a drink is alcoholic. tree →
- The shop cannot sell alcoholic drinks to anyone under age. tree →
- Ginger beer is usually non-alcoholic, even though it says "beer". tree →
note
Starts with a vowel sound: "an alcoholic". Respect matters: many people prefer "a person with alcohol addiction". Trap: "-holic" in "chocoholic" or "workaholic" is a joke word meaning someone who loves something a lot, not an illness.
In the corpora
- "Has a drinking problem" means is an alcoholic, a person who cannot stop drinking alcohol.
- "Refreshments" on an invitation can politely mean alcoholic drinks.
- A "nightcap" is an alcoholic drink before bed.
- "Hair of the dog" means an alcoholic drink taken to cure a hangover, which does not really work.
- "One for the road" means one last alcoholic drink before leaving.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «alcoholic» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.