young
In the early part of growth or life; born not long ago.
Adjective
- In the early part of growth or life; born not long ago.
- a lamb is a young sheep
- these picture books are for young readers
- Come skydiving with us. Come on, you're only young once!
- At an early stage of existence or development; having recently come into existence.
- the age of space travel is still young
- a young business
- […] while the Fears of the People were young, they were encreas’d strangely by several odd Accidents […] - 1722, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year, London: E. Nutt et al, page 23:
- advanced in age; (far towards or) at a specified stage of existence or age.
- And thou, our Mother, twice two centuries young, Bend with bright shafts of truth thy bow fresh-strung. - 1906, Robertson Nicoll, Tis Forty Years Since, quoted in T. P.'s Weekly, volume 8, page 462
- How young is your dog?
- Her grandmother turned 70 years young last month.
- Junior (of two related people with the same name).
- The young Mr. Chester must be in the wrong, and the old Mr. Chester must be in the right. - 1841, The Museum of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art:
- Early (of a decade of life).
- 1922, E. Barrington, “The Mystery of Stella” in “The Ladies!” A Shining Constellation of Wit and Beauty, Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, pp. 40-41, […] Miss Hessy is as pretty a girl as eye can see, in her young...
- Ephraim would be in his young thirties. - 1965, Muriel Spark, The Mandelbaum Gate, London: Macmillan, Part One, Chapter 1:
- […] while this may appeal to older, better-off shoppers, vast numbers, especially those in their teens and young twenties, still want fast, cheap fashion. - 2008 January 20, Alice Fisher, “Grown-up chic is back as high...
- Youthful; having the look or qualities of a young person.
- Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright...
- My grandmother is a very active woman and is quite young for her age.
- Of or belonging to the early part of life.
- The cynical world soon shattered my young dreams.
- Having little experience; inexperienced; unpracticed; ignorant; weak.
- Come, come, elder brother, you are too young in this. - c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
Origin
Inherited from Middle English yong, yonge, from Old English ġeong, from Proto-West Germanic *jung, from Proto-Germanic *jungaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yuHn̥ḱós, from *h₂yuh₁en- (“young”). Cognates Cognate with Alemannic German jung, jungu, junhs, jungà, jòng (“young”), Bavarian junk (“young”), Central Franconian, Luxembourgish jonk (“young”), Cimbrian djung, jung, junk (“young”), Dutch jong (“young”), German, German Low German, Mòcheno and Vilamovian jung (“young”), Limburgish jong, jonk (“young”), Yiddish יונג (yung, “young”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish ung (“young”), Faroese, Icelandic ungur (“young”), Gothic 𐌾𐌿𐌲𐌲𐍃 (juggs, “young”).
Forms
Synonyms
youthful junior juvenile underdeveloped undeveloped immature baby-faced hebetic young youngling youngly youngsome youngthly youthly youthsome
Antonyms
old aged grown up senior youthless elderly mature experienced veteran
Hypernyms
Hyponyms
Young & female: girlish nubile Young & male: beardless boyish unbearded
Related
young adulthood youth callow childish immature puerile coltish juvenal unfledged active inexperienced child
Derived
bright young people Bright Young Thing bright young thing decades young eat one's young foo young old head on young shoulders only the good die young sweet young thing the good die young the night is young while we're young wise head on young shoulders with young years young you can't put an old head on young shoulders you can't put a wise head on young shoulders young adult Young America young and keen young at heart young blood young boul young boy
Noun
- Offspring, especially the immature offspring of animals.
- The lion caught a gnu to feed its young.
- The lion's young are curious about the world around them.
- There is a logic in this behavior: a mother will not come into breeding condition again unless her young is ready to be weaned or has died, so killing a baby may hasten […] - 2010, Mammal Anatomy: An Illustrated Guide,...
Forms
Derived
Verb
- To become or seem to become younger.
- The aging (or younging) of a population refers to the fact that a population, as a unit of observation, is getting older (or younger). - 1993, Jacob S. Siegel, A Generation of Change, page 5:
- To cause to appear younger.
- Medicare data was "younged" by a month to achieve conformity with the conventional completed ages recorded in the census. - 1984, US Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, page 74:
- To exhibit younging.
- Shoshonitic magmatism younged southwards in the Superior Province, commensurate with the southwardly diachronous accretion of allochthonous subprovinces. - 1994, R. Kerrich, D.A. Wyman, “The mesothermal gold-lamprophyre...
- The existence of magmatic belts younging northward implies that slabs of Asian mantle subducted one after another under ranges north of the Himalayas. - 2001 November 23, Paul Tapponnier et al., “Oblique Stepwise Rise...