habitually temperate, especially in the use of liquor.
quiet or sedate in demeanor, as persons.
marked by seriousness, gravity, solemnity, etc., as of demeanor, speech, etc.: a sober occasion.
subdued in tone, as color; not colorful or showy, as clothes.
free from excess, extravagance, or exaggeration: sober facts.
showing self-control: sober restraint.
sane or rational: a sober solution to the problem.
verb (used with or without object)
to make or become sober: (often followed by up).
Origin of sober
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English sobre, from Old French, from Latin sōbrius
SYNONYMS FOR sober
2 abstinent, abstemious.
4 serious, quiet, sedate, subdued, staid.
5 somber, dull.
7 composed, collected.
8 reasonable, sound.
SEE SYNONYMS FOR sober ON THESAURUS.COM
ANTONYMS FOR sober
4 gay.
SEE ANTONYMS FOR sober ON THESAURUS.COM
synonym study for sober
4. See grave2.
historical usage of sober
English sober comes from Middle English sobre, sober(e), sobor, from Old French sobre, from Latin sōbrius “sober (not intoxicated), in possession of one’s faculties, staid and sensible in behavior.” Sōbrius appears to be a compound of the preposition and prefix sē, sē- “apart, aside, by oneself” and the adjective ēbrius “drunk, intoxicated” (the derivative adjective ēbriōsus means “addicted to alcohol, alcoholic”). The adjective sōbrius therefore means “not drunk,” which is an odd way of looking at things, as if sobriety were the unusual condition and drunkenness the normal. Ēbrius ultimately derives from the Proto-Indo-European root egwh- “to drink” (the consonant gwh regularly becomes b in Latin and ph in Greek). The Latin suffix -ri- added to egwh- yields the stem for the adjective ēbrius. In Greek, the root egwh- is prefixed by the negative particle ne-, becoming first nēgwh and then nēph-, the stem of the Greek verb nḗphein “to be sober.”
Van Halen, sober since 2008, lost one-third of his tongue to a cancer that eventually drifted into his esophagus.
Guitar legend Eddie Van Halen dies of cancer at 65|radmarya|October 6, 2020|Fortune
After the officers left, he got back up and asked the attendant if he could leave, since he was sober.
Those Ticketed for Seditious Language Say Their Only Crime Was Talking Back|Kate Nucci|September 9, 2020|Voice of San Diego
Some in recovery — even those clean and sober for decades — say they have doubled or tripled their recovery meeting attendance during the pandemic.
How the Pandemic Is a Boon to Recovering Addicts|Fiona Zublin|August 24, 2020|Ozy
On the other hand, use the rel values such as ugc to tag your user-generated content, and sponsored for the paid links — this will help Google make a sober assessment of your ranking.
Eight HTML elements crucial for SEO|Aleh Barysevich|May 5, 2020|Search Engine Watch
Today, however, the 36-year-old musician is sober—and even showers once in a while.
Julian Casablancas Enters the Void: On the Strokes’ Friction, Why He Left NYC, and Starting Over|Marlow Stern|October 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST
She's well spoken, educated, and sober—a far cry from the one-time face of the adult world, Jenna Jameson.
Porn Keeps Up with the Kardashians: Belle Knox on the Mainstreaming of Adult Stars|Aurora Snow|September 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
You want to believe that there is something between good and evil, right and wrong, joy and pain, drunk and sober.
Beast Fiction: They Killed Our Brothers|J.F. Quinn|September 14, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Sober and muted colors including shades of gray, one described in a local paper as ‘Battleship,’ were prevalent.
How World Wars Made Females More Androgynous|Liza Foreman|July 22, 2014|DAILY BEAST
As a lawyer, Martin was a valued asset in the convention—when sober.
Life, Liberty, and the Founding Fathers’ Pursuit of Hoppiness|Kevin Bleyer|July 4, 2014|DAILY BEAST
When the weather is dull, the Normans have a sober English sky, abounding in Indian ink and neutral tint.
Account of a Tour in Normandy, Vol. I. (of 2)|Dawson Turner
What might have destroyed it was the strange, unharmonizing fact that he was sober.
The Return of the Prodigal|May Sinclair
Once she had forced her mind to sober thought, she realized that she had no reason to hope for anything better.
The Cruise of the O Moo|Roy J. Snell
Kiss the barmaid, about the quickest and wickedest she ever heerd tell of, and then off to bed as sober as a judge.
The Attache|Thomas Chandler Haliburton
It was not often that any of the boys had seen him so sober and sour.
The Boy Scouts Through the Big Timber|Herbert Carter
British Dictionary definitions for sober
sober
/ (ˈsəʊbə) /
adjective
not drunk
not given to excessive indulgence in drink or any other activity
sedate and rationala sober attitude to a problem
(of colours) plain and dull or subdued
free from exaggeration or speculationhe told us the sober truth
verb
(usually foll by up)to make or become less intoxicated, reckless, etc