age
Pronunciation: (āj), [key]
— n., v., aged, ag•ing age•ing.
—n.
- the length of time during which a being or thing has existed; length of life or existence to the time spoken of or referred to: trees of unknown age; His age is 20 years.
- a period of human life, measured by years from birth, usually marked by a certain stage or degree of mental or physical development and involving legal responsibility and capacity: the age of discretion; the age of consent; The state raised the drinking age from 18 to 21 years.
- the particular period of life at which a person becomes naturally or conventionally qualified or disqualified for anything: He was over age for military duty.
- one of the periods or stages of human life: a person of middle age.
- advanced years; old age: His eyes were dim with age.
- a particular period of history, as distinguished from others; a historical epoch: the age of Pericles; the Stone Age; the age of electronic communications.
- the period of history contemporary with the span of an individual's life: He was the most famous architect of the age.
- a generation or a series of generations: ages yet unborn.
- a great length of time: I haven't seen you for an age. He's been gone for ages.
- the average life expectancy of an individual or of the individuals of a class or species: The age of a horse is from 25 to 30 years.
- the level of mental, emotional, or educational development of a person, esp. a child, as determined by various tests and based on a comparison of the individual's score with the average score for persons of the same chronological age.
- the Ice Age.
- a period of the history of the earth distinguished by some special feature:the Ice Age.
- a unit of geological time, shorter than an epoch, during which the rocks comprising a stage were formed.
- any of the successive periods in human history divided, according to Hesiod, into the golden, silver, bronze, heroic, and iron ages.
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- Poker.the first player at the dealer's left. Cf. edge (def. 10a).
- Seeeldest hand.
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- being any of several ages, usually 21 or 18, at which certain legal rights, as voting or marriage, are acquired.
- being old enough for full legal rights and responsibilities.
—v.i.
- to grow old: He is aging rapidly.
- to mature, as wine, cheese, or wood: a heavy port that ages slowly.
—v.t.
- to make old; cause to grow or seem old: Fear aged him overnight.
- to bring to maturity or a state fit for use: to age wine.
- to store (a permanent magnet, a capacitor, or other similar device) so that its electrical or magnetic characteristics become constant.
-age
- a suffix typically forming mass or abstract nouns from various parts of speech, occurring originally in loanwords from French (voyage; courage) and productive in English with the meanings “aggregate” (coinage; peerage; trackage), “process” (coverage; breakage), “the outcome of ” as either “the fact of ” or “the physical effect or remains of ” (seepage; wreckage; spoilage), “place of living or business” (parsonage; brokerage), “social standing or relationship” (bondage; marriage; patronage), and “quantity, measure, or charge” (footage; shortage; tonnage; towage).
Ag.E.
- Agricultural Engineer.
A.G.E.
- Associate in General Education.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.