Wiktionary

middle-aged

See also: middleaged

English

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Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˌmɪdl̩ˈeɪd͡ʒd/, /ˈmɪdl̩ˌeɪd͡ʒd/
  • Audio:(file)

Adjective

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middle-aged (comparative more middle-aged, superlative most middle-aged)

  1. (not comparable) Of or relating to middle age or a middle-ager; neither old nor young.
    The person of interest is a middle-aged man seen acting strangely in the security camera's video.
    • 1676, Rigaud, quoting Collins, Corr. Sci. Men, volume II, published 1841, page 453:
      The admirable M. Leibnitz, a German, but a member of the Royal Society, scarce yet middle aged.
    • 1709, Steele, Tatler, № 77, ¶ 2:
      When I was a middle-aged Man.
    • 1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol:
      If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet’s Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot — say Saint Paul’s Churchyard for instance — literally to astonish his son’s weak mind.
    • 1880, G. Meredith, Tragic Com., published 1881, page 81:
      A middle-aged, grave and honourable man.
    1. (comparable) Characteristic of middle-aged people.
      Well, perhaps that beige-on-beige color scheme may be a little middle-aged for a young artist's apartment; a little repainting won't hurt anything.
      • 1886, Lowell, Gray, in Latest Lit. Ess., published 1891, page 2:
        Cowper was really mad at intervals, but his poetry, admirable as it is in its own middle-aged way, is in need of anything rather than a strait-waistcoat.
      • 1887, Ruskin, Præterita, volume II, page 269:
        His already almost middle-aged aspect of serene sagacity.
  2. (obsolete, not comparable) Belonging to the Middle Ages; medieval.
    • 1710, Hearne, Collect. (O.H.S.), volume III, page 49:
      The reading and perusing of middle-ag’d Antiquities.
    • 1804, Mitford, Inquiry, page 318:
      Of the modern and middle-aged Greek.
    • 1845, Proc. Philol. Soc., volume II, page 145:
      The English hunger bears a strong resemblance to the Spanish hambre, formed from the middle-aged Latin famina.

Translations

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Further reading

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