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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Age \Age\ ([=a]j), noun [OF. aage, eage, F. [^a]ge, fr. L. aetas through a supposed LL. aetaticum. L. aetas is contracted fr. aevitas, fr. aevum lifetime, age; akin to E. aye ever. Cf. {Each}.]
1. The whole duration of a being, whether animal, vegetable, or other kind; lifetime.
Mine age is as nothing before thee. --Ps. xxxix. 5.
2. That part of the duration of a being or a thing which is between its beginning and any given time; as, what is the present age of a man, or of the earth?
3. The latter part of life; an advanced period of life; seniority; state of being old.
Nor wrong mine age with this indignity. --Shak.
4. One of the stages of life; as, the age of infancy, of youth, etc. --Shak.
5. Mature age; especially, the time of life at which one attains full personal rights and capacities; as, to come of age; he (or she) is of age. --Abbott.
Note: In the United States, both males and females are of age when twenty-one years old. Some rights, such as that of voting in elections, are conferred earlier. [1913 Webster +PJC]
6. The time of life at which some particular power or capacity is understood to become vested; as, the age of consent; the age of discretion. --Abbott.
7. A particular period of time in history, as distinguished from others; as, the golden age, the age of Pericles. ''The spirit of the age.'' --Prescott.
Truth, in some age or other, will find her witness. --Milton.
Note: Archeological ages are designated as three: The Stone age (the early and the later stone age, called paleolithic and neolithic), the Bronze age, and the Iron age. During the Age of Stone man is supposed to have employed stone for weapons and implements. See {Augustan}, {Brazen}, {Golden}, {Heroic}, {Middle}.
8. A great period in the history of the Earth.
Note: The geologic ages are as follows:
1. The Arch[ae]an, including the time when was no life and the time of the earliest and simplest forms of life. 2. The age of Invertebrates, or the Silurian, when the life on the globe consisted distinctively of invertebrates. 3. The age of Fishes, or the Devonian, when fishes were the dominant race. 4. The age of Coal Plants, or Acrogens, or the Carboniferous age. 5. The Mesozoic or Secondary age, or age of Reptiles, when reptiles prevailed in great numbers and of vast size. 6. The Tertiary age, or age of Mammals, when the mammalia, or quadrupeds, abounded, and were the dominant race. 7. The Quaternary age, or age of Man, or the modern era. --Dana.
9. A century; the period of one hundred years.
Fleury . . . apologizes for these five ages. --Hallam.
10. The people who live at a particular period; hence, a generation. ''Ages yet unborn.'' --Pope.
The way which the age follows. --J. H. Newman.
Lo! where the stage, the poor, degraded stage, Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age. --C. Sprague.
11. A long time. [Colloq.] ''He made minutes an age.'' --Tennyson.
12. (poker) the right belonging to the player to the left of the dealer to pass the first round in betting, and then to come in last or stay out; also, the player holding this position; the eldest hand. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
{Age of a tide}, the time from the origin of a tide in the South Pacific Ocean to its arrival at a given place.
{Moon's age}, the time that has elapsed since the last preceding conjunction of the sun and moon.
Note: Age is used to form the first part of many compounds; as, agelasting, age-adorning, age-worn, age-enfeebled, agelong.
Syn: Time; period; generation; date; era; epoch.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Age \Age\, verb (used without an object) [imp. & p. p. {Aged}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Aging}.] To grow aged; to become old; to show marks of age; as, he grew fat as he aged.
They live one hundred and thirty years, and never age for all that. --Holland.
I am aging; that is, I have a whitish, or rather a light-colored, hair here and there. --Landor.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Age \Age\, verb (used with an object) To cause to grow old; to impart the characteristics of age to; as, grief ages us.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
age
noun
1: how long something has existed; "it was replaced because of its age"
2: an era of history having some distinctive feature; "we live in a litigious age" [syn: {historic period}]
3: a time in life (usually defined in years) at which some particular qualification or power arises; "she was now of school age"; "tall for his eld" [syn: {eld}]
4: a late time of life; "old age is not for sissies"; "he's showing his years"; "age hasn't slowed him down at all"; "a beard white with eld"; "on the brink of geezerhood" [syn: {old age}, {years}, {eld}, {geezerhood}]
5: a prolonged period of time; "we've known each other for ages"; "I haven't been there for years and years" [syn: {long time}, {years}]
verb
1: begin to seem older; get older; "The death of his wife caused him to age fast"
2: grow old or older; "She aged gracefully"; "we age every day--what a depressing thought!"; "Young men senesce" [syn: {senesce}, {get on}, {mature}, {maturate}]
3: make older; "The death of his child aged him tremendously" [ant: {rejuvenate}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
135 Moby Thesaurus words for "age": Bronze Age, Dark Ages, Depression Era, Golden Age, Ice Age, Iron Age, Jacksonian Age, Middle Ages, New Deal Era, Platonic year, Prohibition Era, Silver Age, Steel Age, Stone Age, abidingness, aboriginality, aeon, ages, ancien regime, ancientness, annus magnus, antiquate, antiquity, atavism, become extinct, become obsolete, blue moon, caducity, century, cheat the undertaker, cobwebs of antiquity, constancy, continuance, cycle, cycle of indiction, date, day, days, decline, defeat of time, defiance of time, develop, diuturnity, dodder, durability, durableness, duration, dust of ages, eld, elderliness, eldership, endurance, epoch, era, eternity, fade, fail, florid, fossilize, fust, generation, get along, get on, glacial epoch, great age, great year, grow, grow old, grow up, hoary age, hoary eld, indiction, inveteracy, lastingness, life, lifetime, long, long standing, long time, long while, long-lastingness, long-livedness, longevity, lose currency, maintenance, maturate, mellow, molder, month of Sundays, obsolesce, old age, old order, old style, oldness, outdate, perdurability, perennation, period of existence, perish, permanence, perpetuity, persistence, primitiveness, primogeniture, primordialism, primordiality, right smart spell, ripe, ripen, rust, senectitude, senescence, senility, seniority, shake, shrivel, sink, stability, standing, steadfastness, superannuate, survival, survivance, time, totter, turn gray, turn white, venerableness, wane, waste away, wither, wizen, wrinkle, years, years on end
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
AGE, noun That period of life in which we compound for the vices that we still cherish by reviling those that we have no longer the enterprise to commit.
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:
Age used to denote the period of a man's life (Gen. 47:28), the maturity of life (John 9:21), the latter end of life (Job 11:17), a generation of the human race (Job 8:8), and an indefinite period (Eph. 2:7; 3:5, 21; Col. 1:26). Respect to be shown to the aged (Lev. 19:32). It is a blessing to communities when they have old men among them (Isa. 65:20; Zech. 8:4). The aged supposed to excel in understanding (Job 12:20; 15:10; 32:4, 9; 1 Kings 12:6, 8). A full age the reward of piety (Job 5:26; Gen. 15:15).
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