age

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Old age

Nouns

1. age, years, oldness; life expectancy, life span; longevity, length of years; gerontology, geriatrics; gerontocracy; ageism.

2. (maturity) adulthood, man- or womanhood, maturity; legal or lawful age, voting, drinking, driving, etc., age; prime of life; years of discretion, majority; middle age, the afternoon of life, midlife crisis; change of life, menopause, male menopause, climacteric; seniority, eldership, primogeniture.

3. (agedness) old or advanced age, senility; senescence; years, anility, gray hairs, climacteric, menopause; declining years, decrepitude, infirmity, feebleness (See deterioration), superannuation; second childhood, dotage; vale of years, decline of life, three-score years and ten; ripe [old] age, silver threads among the gold. See time.

4. (aged person) adult, grown-up, grown person; old man, elder, doyen, father; old woman, dowager, matron, crone; senior citizen, old-timer, golden ager, patriarch, graybeard, gray eminence, Methuselah, Father Time; veteran; firstling, eldest; sexagenarian, septuagenarian, octogenarian, nonagenarian, centenarian. Informal, baby boomer, generation X, postpreppie. Slang, fossil, gaffer, geezer, oldster, old rip, sugar daddy, longbeard, harpie.

Verbs

1. age, grow old, decline, senesce, get on [in years]; dodder, shrivel, wizen; live to a ripe old age; be aged, have seen better days, show one's age, have one foot in the grave. Informal, be over the hill, have the dwindlies.

2. mature, come of age, grow up, ripen, mellow, temper; come to man's estate, attain or reach majority, have cut one's eyeteeth, have sown one's wild oats, settle down.

Adjectives

1. (being old) aged, old, elder[ly], senior, senile; aging, graying, senescent; matronly, anile; [along or on] in years; ripe, mellow, run to seed, declining, past one's prime; grayheaded, hoary, venerable, gray, timeworn; antiquated (See oldness); decrepit, doddering, wizened, wrinkled, superannuated; of a certain age, no [spring] chicken, over the hill, old as Methuselah; patriarchal, ancient; advanced in life or years; stricken in years; aging, senescent, getting on [in years], long in the tooth, not as young as one used to be; on one's last legs, having one foot in the grave. Slang, gaga.

2. (being mature) of [full] age, out of one's teens, grown up, mature, full grown, developed, ripe; over age; in one's prime, middle-aged, adult; womanly, matronly; marriageable, nubile (See marriage); old enough to know better.

Phrases — there's no fool like an old fool; if youth knew, if age could; never send a boy to do a man's job.

Quotations — Life begins at forty (Walter B. Pitkin), Midway along the path of our life (Dante); Every man desires to live long; but no man would be old ( Jonathan Swift); Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm sixty-four? (Lennon/McCartney), Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that can happen to a man (Leon Trotsky), It's the only disease you don't look forward to being cured of (Welles/Mankiewicz), It is sobering to consider that when Mozart was my age he had already been dead for a year (Tom Lehrer), There's many a good tune played on an old fiddle (Samuel Butler).

Antonyms, See youth.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [The period of one's existence]

Syn. span, lifetime, duration, time of life; see life 4 .

Particular stages of life include: infancy, childhood, girlhood, boyhood, adolescence, teens, youth, adulthood, middle age, old age, dotage, sweet sixteen*, flaming youth*, anecdotage*.

2. [Old age]

Syn. old age, advanced years, elderliness, senescence, antiquity, oldness, ancientness, decrepitude, superannuation, seniority, maturity, golden years, declining years, sunset years, winter of life, senectitude; see also sense 1 .

3. [A period of time]

Syn. epoch, era, period, time, century, decade, eon, generation, interval, interim, term, days ( of someone or something ); see also life 4 , period 1 .

4. [*A long time; often plural ]

Syn. eon, eternity, years, dog's age*, coon's age*, donkey's years*, month of Sundays*.

See Synonym Study at period .

• of age,

Syn. adult, mature, eighteen, twenty-one, having attained one's majority; see also mature 1 .

v.

1. [To grow old]

Syn. grow old, get on, get on in years, grow feeble, decline, wane, advance in years, wrinkle, deteriorate, fail, waste away, turn gray, turn white, show one's years, show one's age, have one foot in the grave*, go downhill*, be over the hill*.

2. [To mature]

Syn. ripen, develop, mellow, mature; see grow 2 .

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus)

I

n.

1. period of time generation, duration, lifetime, era, epoch, period, century, millenium, cycle, span.

2. stage season, phase, point, year, maturity, majority, minority, adulthood, declining years, youth, adolescence, infancy, middle age. ''It takes about ten years to get used to how old you are.''— Unknown. ''[Something that]

doesn't matter unless you're a cheese.''—Billie Burke. see time

II

v.

mature, ripen, develop, grow older, season, weather, mellow, slow down, waste away. ''To take in sail.''—Emerson. see old, old age, old-faced

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) I noun 1. Old age: agedness, elderliness, senectitude, senescence, year (used in plural). See YOUTH. 2. A particular time notable for its distinctive characteristics: day, epoch, era, period, time (often used in plural). See TIME. 3. Informal. A long time. Used in plural: eon, eternity, long1, year (used in plural). Informal: blue moon. Idioms: forever and a day, forever and ever, month of Sundays. See TIME. II verb 1. To grow old: get along, get on: See YOUTH. 2. To bring or come to full development: develop, grow, maturate, mature, mellow, ripen. See YOUTH.