| / English Dictionary |
SOBER
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Lacking brightness or color; dull
Example:
children in somber brown clothes
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Similar:
colorless; colourless (weak in color; not colorful)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Not affected by a chemical substance (especially alcohol)
Classified under:
Similar:
cold sober; stone-sober (totally sober)
drug-free (characteristic of a person not taking illegal drugs or of a place where no illegal drugs are used)
dry; teetotal (practicing complete abstinence from alcoholic beverages)
uninebriated; unintoxicated (not inebriated)
Antonym:
intoxicated (stupefied or excited by a chemical substance (especially alcohol))
Derivation:
soberness (the state of being sober and not intoxicated by alcohol)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Dignified and somber in manner or character and committed to keeping promises
Example:
the judge was solemn as he pronounced sentence
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
serious (concerned with work or important matters rather than play or trivialities)
Derivation:
soberness (a manner that is serious and solemn)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Completely lacking in playfulness
Synonyms:
serious; sober; unplayful
Classified under:
Adjectives
Attribute:
fun; playfulness (a disposition to find (or make) causes for amusement)
Derivation:
soberness (a manner that is serious and solemn)
II. (verb)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they sober ... he / she / it sobers
Past simple: sobered
Past participle: sobered
-ing form: sobering
Sense 1
Meaning:
Become sober after excessive alcohol consumption
Example:
Keep him in bed until he sobers up
Synonyms:
sober; sober up
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "sober" is one way to...):
become; get; go (enter or assume a certain state or condition)
"Sober" entails doing...:
booze; drink; fuddle; hit the bottle (consume alcohol)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s
Sense 2
Meaning:
Become more realistic
Example:
After thinking about the potential consequences of his plan, he sobered up
Synonyms:
sober; sober up
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "sober" is one way to...):
become; get; go (enter or assume a certain state or condition)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s
Sense 3
Meaning:
Cause to become sober
Example:
A sobering thought
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "sober" is one way to...):
alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)
Sentence frames:
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Sentence examples:
The bad news will sober him
The performance is likely to sober Sue
Context examples:
Our treasure was warranted sober and honest.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Nothing remained to him but his thirst, a prodigious possession in itself that grew more prodigious with every sober breath he drew.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
We laid him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to relieve his pain.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
With infinite difficulty, for he was stubborn as a stone, I persuaded him to make an exchange in favour of a sober black satin and pearl-grey silk.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
They were of sobering tendency; they allayed agitation; they composed, and consequently must make her happier.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
He was a good-hearted man when he was sober, but a perfect fiend when he was drunk, or rather when he was half drunk, for he seldom really went the whole way.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It was easy to decide that she was still too young; and Jane remained with them, sharing, as another daughter, in all the rational pleasures of an elegant society, and a judicious mixture of home and amusement, with only the drawback of the future, the sobering suggestions of her own good understanding to remind her that all this might soon be over.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
He wore a very shiny top hat and a neat suit of sober black, which made him look what he was—a smart young City man, of the class who have been labeled cockneys, but who give us our crack volunteer regiments, and who turn out more fine athletes and sportsmen than any body of men in these islands.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Instead of falling a sacrifice to an irresistible passion, as once she had fondly flattered herself with expecting,—instead of remaining even for ever with her mother, and finding her only pleasures in retirement and study, as afterwards in her more calm and sober judgment she had determined on,—she found herself at nineteen, submitting to new attachments, entering on new duties, placed in a new home, a wife, the mistress of a family, and the patroness of a village.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
His past was fairly blameless; few men could read the rolls of their life with less apprehension; yet he was humbled to the dust by the many ill things he had done, and raised up again into a sober and fearful gratitude by the many he had come so near to doing yet avoided.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
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