Ab-stē'mi-ous, a.
a. [Lat. abstemius, from ab, abs, and temetum, strong wine, mead, a protracted form for temum, equiv. to μέθυ, Skr. root thīm, and tīm, to be wet.]
Sense 1. Sparing in diet; refraining from a free use of food and strong drinks; temperate, abstinent.
Instances of longevity are chiefly among the abstemious. Arbuthnot.
Sense 2. Sparingly used, or used with temperance; as, an abstemious diet.
Sense 3. Devoted to, or spent in, abstinence. “One abstemious day.” Pope.
Sense 4. Promotive of abstemiousness. [Rare.]
Such is the virtue of the abstemious well. Dryden.
☞ In early English this word denoted merely abstaining from wine, as it does in French.
Under his special eye Abstemious I grew up and thrived amain. Milton.