Dictionary

ebriety en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ɪˈbɹaɪ.ɪt.i/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

From French ébriété (“drunkenness”), from Latin ēbrietātem, from ēbrius (“drunk”).

Meanings

1. (uncountable) The state of intoxication, drunkenness.
   • It had been as the murmurous consecration to follow the murmurous welcome; and even if it were but part of Aunt Maud's own spiritual ebriety—for the dear woman, one could see, was spiritually "keeping" the day—it served to Milly, then and afterwards, as a high-water mark of the imagination. 1902 August 21, Henry James, The Wings of the Dove, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:
   • God's touches, the wounds of his spear, references to ebriety and to nuptial union have to figure in the phraseology by which [a mystical state] is shadowed forth. 1902, William James, “Lectures XVI and XVII: Mysticism”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 412:
2. (countable, obsolete) An instance of being drunk.

Forms

Antonyms

sobriety

Deriveds

inebriety