age
age definition
age (āj)
noun
- the time that a person or a thing has existed since birth or beginning
- usual or expected life span the age of a medieval peasant was quite short
- a stage of life she is at the awkward age
- the condition of being old; old age wearied with age
- a generation
- any interval of geologic time; specif., a subdivision of an epoch corresponding to the rock strata of a stage ()
- any prehistoric cultural period in human development the Stone Age
- a period characterized by some person or by some outstanding feature or influence the Elizabethan Age, the Space Age
- Informal a long time
Etymology: ME < OFr aage < ML *aetaticum < L aetas, contr. < aevitas, akin to aevum, age, eternity < IE base *aiw- > aye
intransitive verb aged, aging ag′·ing or ageing age′·ing
- to grow old or show signs of growing old
- to ripen or become mature
transitive verb
- to make, or make seem, old or mature
- to cause to ripen or become mature over a period of time under fixed conditions to age cheese
age Idioms
of age
having reached the age when one has full legal rights
Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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