year

[[t]jɪ͟ə(r)[/t]]

♦

years

1) N-COUNT A year is a period of twelve months or 365 or 366 days, beginning on the first of January and ending on the thirty-first of December.

The year was 1840...

We had an election last year.

...the number of people on the planet by the year 2050.

2) N-COUNT A year is any period of twelve months.

The museums attract more than two and a half million visitors a year...

She's done quite a bit of work this past year...

The school has been empty for ten years.

3) N-COUNT: num N adj/prep Year is used to refer to the age of a person. For example, if someone or something is twenty years old or twenty years of age, they have lived or existed for twenty years.

He's 58 years old...

I've been in trouble since I was eleven years of age...

This column is ten years old today.

4) N-COUNT: usu adj/ord N A school year or academic year is the period of time in each twelve months when schools or universities are open and students are studying there. In Britain and the United States, the school year starts in September.

...the 1990/91 academic year...

The twins didn't have to repeat their second year at school.

5) N-COUNT: ord N You can refer to someone who is, for example, in their first year at school or university as a first year. [BRIT]

The first years and second years got a choice of French, German and Spanish.

6) N-COUNT: with supp A financial or business year is an exact period of twelve months which businesses or institutions use as a basis for organizing their finances.

He announced big tax increases for the next two financial years...

The company admits it will make a loss for the year ending September.

7) N-PLURAL (emphasis) You can use years to emphasize that you are referring to a long time.

I haven't laughed so much in years...

It took him years to get up the courage...

People hold onto letters for years and years.

Syn:

ages

8) N-PLURAL: poss N, usu N prep You can refer to the time you spend in a place or doing an activity as your years there or your years of doing that activity.

The joy turned to tragedy during his years in Cyprus.

...his years as Director of the Manchester City Art Gallery.

9) → See also , fiscal year

10) PHRASE: PHR after v If something happens year after year, it happens regularly every year.

Regulars return year after year...

You keep on amazing me, year after year, the same old ways.

11) PHRASE: PHR after v If something changes year by year, it changes gradually each year.

This problem has increased year by year...

The department has been shrinking year by year because of budget cuts.

12) PHRASE: PHR with cl If something happens year in, year out, it happens every year without changing and is often boring.

Year in, year out, nothing changes...

With stockbroking it was the same thing, year in year out.

13) PHRASE You can say a man of his years or a woman of her years to refer to that person's age in relation to something else you are talking about.

He was moving with surprising speed for a man of his years...

A young man of his years needed to have a separate room.

14) PHRASE: V inflects If you say that something such as an experience or a way of dressing has put years on someone, you mean that it has made them look or feel much older. [INFORMAL]

I always turn adversity and defeat into victories, but it's probably put ten years on me.

15) PHRASE: PHR after v, PHR with cl If you say something happens all year round or all the year round, it happens continually throughout the year.

Town gardens are ideal because they produce flowers nearly all year round...

Drinking and driving is a problem all the year round.

16) PHRASE: V inflects, PHR n If you say that something such as an experience or a way of dressing has taken years off someone, you mean that it has made them look or feel much younger. [INFORMAL]

Changing your hairstyle can take ten years off you.

17) donkey's years → see donkey