SOBER • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Sober

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/sˈoʊbər/ Listen

adjective

Sober adj. (compar. soberer; superl. soberest)

1.

Temperate in the use of spirituous liquors; habitually temperate; as, a sober man. "That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of Thy holy name."

2.

Not intoxicated or excited by spirituous liquors; as, the sot may at times be sober.

3.

Not mad or insane; not wild, visionary, or heated with passion; exercising cool, dispassionate reason; self-controlled; self-possessed. "There was not a sober person to be had; all was tempestuous and blustering." "No sober man would put himself into danger for the applause of escaping without breaking his neck."

4.

Not proceeding from, or attended with, passion; calm; as, sober judgment; a man in his sober senses.

5.

Serious or subdued in demeanor, habit, appearance, or color; solemn; grave; sedate. "What parts gay France from sober Spain?" "See her sober over a sampler, or gay over a jointed baby." "Twilight gray Had in her sober livery all things clad."

Synonyms: Grave; temperate; abstinent; abstemious; moderate; regular; steady; calm; quiet; cool; collected; dispassionate; unimpassioned; sedate; staid; serious; solemn; somber. See Grave.

verb

Sober v. t. (past & past part. sobered; pres. part. sobering) To make sober. "There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again."

Sober v. i. To become sober; often with down. "Vance gradually sobered down."

See images of 'Sober'

Etymology of 'Sober'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sober" Quotes from Famous Books

... yonder behind the wagon mumbling his bone with the honest family which lives by his tumbling; but the general impression is one more melancholy than mirthful. When you come home, you sit down, in a sober, contemplative, not uncharitable frame of mind, and apply yourself to your ...

— The Art Of Writing & Speaking The English Language - Word-Study and Composition & Rhetoric • Sherwin Cody

... that peculiar quality of Californian humor which was apt to mitigate the extravagances of the revolver and the uncertainties of poker had no place in the decorous and responsible utterance of San Francisco. The press was sober, materialistic, practical—when it was not severely admonitory of existing evil; the few smaller papers that indulged in levity were considered libelous and improper. Fancy was displaced by heavy articles on ...

— Under the Redwoods • Bret Harte

... strength and their weakness. They are not equally suitable to all races and to all circumstances. It was this obvious truth that Jefferson tore to shreds before the eyes of his compatriots. He persuaded them to accept his vague generalities as a sober statement of philosophic truth, and he aroused a hatred of kingship in America which was comic in expression and disastrous in result. It was due to his influence that plain citizens hymned the glories of "Guillotina, the Tenth Muse," and fell down in worship before a Phrygian ...

— American Sketches - 1908 • Charles Whibley

... toward the body, but he was staring at the house and shaking his fist at it. He reeled off the cement path and almost stumbled over Simon before he saw him. He gave a cry, and stooped to look closer—then turned and bolted for dear life and vanished down the trail. He had been scared sober! ...

— The Monk of Hambleton • Armstrong Livingston

... in the agitation of some disturbance. A moment later the sun caught files of bayonets. At the same instant the same thing happened at the end of the other converging street. The armed columns came steadily forward, the people giving way. Their men were dressed in sober citizens' clothes. The shining steel of the bayonets furnished the only touch of uniform. Quietly and steadily they came forward, the snake of steel undulating and twisting like a living thing. The ...

— The Gray Dawn • Stewart Edward White

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