An alcoholic is a man or a woman who suffers from alcoholism-they have a distinct physical desire to consume alcohol beyond their capacity to control it, regardless of all rules of common sense.part from having an enormous craving for alcohol, an alcoholic often yields to that craving at the worst possible times. The alcoholic knows neither when nor how to stop drinking. Definition-an alcoholic is a person, while alcoholism is the illness. An alcoholic suffers from alcoholism.