wino

noun

ˈwī-(ˌ)nō 

plural winos

1

informal + often disparaging : a person (especially a person without a permanent place of residence) who is habitually drunk on wine

… his father was a wino, living on the streets …

—Kevin Murphy

Her every night out came under the gaze of the tabloids. … The "Voice of an Angel, liver of a wino" headlines wrote themselves.

—Simmy Richman

… I was relieved to get downstairs and find it was just one of the regular neighborhood winos, a placable fellow whom I have escorted out before with no hard feelings.

—Victoria McKernan

2

somewhat informal : a wine enthusiast or connoisseur

Perhaps your recipient is a wino but you don't have the budget for a subscription or would prefer the gesture of physically giving them a gift.

—Louis Cheslaw

The perfect item for any wino who wants to take their tasting skills to the next level.

—Wine Enthusiast Magazine

Examples of wino in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Hank not only acknowledges the wino sleeping outside his stoop, but takes a minute to give him money. — Peter Debruge, Variety, 24 Aug. 2025

Feed your wino friend's sense of curiosity with the most popular wine club in the land. — Jasmine Gomez, Women's Health, 11 Aug. 2023

Some started at The Sweet Factory, then spent the afternoon dipping a hand into the candy bag like a wino with a bottle. — Rich Cohen, wsj.com, 29 Apr. 2023

These were given suitably stupid names, like selectrons, sneutrinos, squarks, photinos, and my personal (least) favorite, the wino boson. — Paul Sutter, Ars Technica, 27 Jan. 2023

If your uncle is a wino, this is the membership service to set him up with. — Mark Stock, Men's Health, 15 Dec. 2022

During a 1968 vote-fraud investigation with the Chicago Daily News, Recktenwald went undercover as a Skid Row wino and registered to vote at a succession of flophouses over several weeks. — Bob Goldsborough, chicagotribune.com, 23 Aug. 2021

The business also hosts events, including wine tastings and wino bingo. — Hannah Kirby, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 13 Feb. 2020

Word History

First Known Use

1915, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for wino

• dino
• fino
• keno
• lino
• amino
• carlino
• casino
• imino
• ladino
• latino
• merino
• neutrino