Definition of "age"

age

/eɪd͡ʒ/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural ages
1. (countable) The whole duration of a being, whether human, animal, plant, or other kind, being alive.
2. (countable) The number of full years, months, days, hours, etc., that someone, or something, has been alive.
  Quotations
  Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.
  2013 July 1, Peter Wilby, “Finland’s education ambassador spreads the word”, in The Guardian‎, London, archived from the original on 16 July 2017; republished as “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, London, 2013 July 19, page 30
3. (countable) One of the stages of life.
4. (countable) The time of life at which some particular power or capacity is understood to become vested.
5. (countable) A particular period of time in history, as distinguished from others.
  Quotations
  Encircling the marble altar was a congregation of leering shamen. Eerie chants of a bygone age, originating unknown eons before the memory of man, were being uttered from the buried recesses of the acolytes' deep lings [sic].
  1970, Jim Theis, “The Eye of Argon”, in OSFAN‎, volume 10, Chapter 3½, page 33
  The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices). It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber.
  2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel: The world’s thirst for oil could be nearing a peak. That is bad news for producers, excellent for everyone else.”, in The Economist‎, volume 408, number 8847, archived from the original on 1 August 2013
6. (countable) A great period in the history of the Earth.
7. (astrology) One of the twelve divisions of a Great Year, equal to roughly 2000 years and goverened by one of the zodiacal signs; a Platonic month.
  Quotations
  Mr Lewis says we are living in the age of Aquarius, which means that the world is at present passing through the zodiacal sign of Aquarius, the airy constellation.
  1911 April 10, The Evening News, Sydney, page 8, column 2
8. (countable) A period of one hundred years; a century.
9. (countable) The people who live during a particular period.
10. (countable) A generation.
11. (countable, hyperbolic) A long time.
12. (countable, geology) The shortest geochronologic unit, being a period of thousands to millions of years; a subdivision of an epoch (or sometimes a subepoch).
13. (countable, poker) The right of 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.
14. (uncountable) That part of the duration of a being or a thing which is between its beginning and any given time; specifically the size of that part.
15. (uncountable) Mature age; especially, the time of life at which one attains full personal rights and capacities.
16. (uncountable) An advanced period of life; the latter part of life; the state of being old, old age, senility; seniority.
  Quotations
  Feel awfully about Scott... It was a terrible thing for him to love youth so much that he jumped straight from youth to senility without going through manhood. The minute he felt youth going he was frightened again and thought there was nothing between youth and age.
  1936 Feb. 15, Ernest Hemingway, letter to Maxwell Perkins
verb
third-person singular simple present ages, present participle ageing or (US) aging, simple past and past participle aged
1. (intransitive) To grow aged; to become old; to show marks of age.
  Quotations
  I am aging; that is, I have a whitish, or rather a light-coloured, hair here and there. Sober thinking brings them
  1824, Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations
  As we age, the major arteries of our bodies frequently become thickened with plaque, a fatty material with an oatmeal-like consistency that builds up along the inner lining of blood vessels. The reason plaque forms isn’t entirely known, but it seems to be related to high levels of cholesterol inducing an inflammatory response, which can also attract and trap more cellular debris over time.
  2013 July-August, Stephen P. Lownie, David M. Pelz, “Stents to Prevent Stroke”, in American Scientist
2. (intransitive, informal, of a statement, prediction) To be viewed or turn out in some way after a certain time has passed.
3. (transitive) To cause to grow old; to impart the characteristics of age to.
4. (transitive, figuratively) To postpone an action that would extinguish something, as a debt.
5. (transitive, accounting) To categorize by age.
6. (transitive) To indicate that a person has been alive for a certain period of time, especially a long one.
  Quotations
  Mr. [David] Brinkley started out with network news. We got our news- I think it was the Huntley-Brinkley Report. I'm probably aging myself now, okay?
  1992 June 14, This Week with David Brinkley (television production), spoken by [James?] Carville, via ABC
  To look at the hair by itself you'd say it was actually quite pretty, but on her head the gray sure ages her.
  1998 Fall, Mare Freed, “Aluhana”, in The Antioch Review, volume 56, number 4