Age , n. In 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.
Age , v. t. To cause to grow
old; to impart the characteristics of age to; as, grief ages us.
Age , v. i. [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.
Age (āj), n. [OF. aage,
eage, F. âge,
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. In the United States, both males and females are of age when twenty-one years old.
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.
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.
The geologic ages are as follows: 1. The Archæan, 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.
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.
&fist; 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.
Hear it pronounced