- age
- [[t]e͟ɪʤ[/t]]
♦(The spelling aging is also used, mainly in American English.)1) N-VAR Your age is the number of years that you have lived.
She has a nephew who is just ten years of age...
At the age of sixteen he qualified for a place at the University of Hamburg...
I admired him for being so confident at his age.
2) N-VAR The age of a thing is the number of years since it was made.Everything in the room looks in keeping with the age of the building.
3) N-UNCOUNT Age is the state of being old or the process of becoming older.Perhaps he has grown wiser with age...
This cologne, like wine, improves with age...
The worst sign of age was in the fabric which looked decidedly ancient.
Ant:4) V-ERG When someone ages, or when something ages them, they seem much older and less strong or less alert.He had always looked so young, but he seemed to have aged in the last few months...
[V n] He was only in his mid-thirties, but already worry had aged him.
5) V-ERG When food or alcohol is aged or when it ages, it is left to get older before being eaten or drunk, so that it develops a better flavour.[V-ed in] Balsamic vinegar is aged in wood for at least 10 years and the flavour is wonderful...
Whisky loses strength as it ages. [Also V n]
6) N-COUNT: usu with supp An age is a period in history....the age of steam and steel.
...items of Bronze Age pottery.
7) N-COUNT You can say an age or ages to mean a very long time. [INFORMAL]He waited what seemed an age...
The bus took absolutely ages to arrive.
Syn:forever, years8) → See also , ageing, , dark age, , Ice Age, , middle age, Stone Age9) PHRASE: V inflects (disapproval) If someone tells you to act your age, they are telling you to behave in a way that is suitable for someone your age, because they think you are behaving in a childish way.10) PHRASE: V inflects If something comes of age, it reaches an important stage of development and is accepted by a large number of people.Recycling is an issue that has come of age in Britain in the last decade.
11) PHRASE: V inflects When someone comes of age, they become legally an adult.The company was now officially owned by Eddie, but held in trust until he came of age.
12) PHRASE: usu v-link PHR, PHR n Someone who is under age is not legally old enough to do something, for example to buy an alcoholic drink.Because she was under age, her parents were still responsible for her.
...under age smoking.
English dictionary. 2008.
