ninetiesn.adj.
/ˈnʌɪntɪz/, U.S. /ˈnaɪn(t)iz/ A. n.
1. With the. Frequently with capital initial. The years from ninety to ninety-nine inclusive in a particular century (esp. the nineteenth or twentieth). Cf. naughty nineties n. at naughty adj. Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > relative time > the past > historical period > [noun] > specific centuries, decades, or years > fin de siècle
nineties1853
Gay Nineties1925
naughty nineties1925
1853 Chambers's Edinb. Jrnl. 12 Nov. 320/1 In a few more years, the men of the nineties will be in course; and so it goes on.
1894 Athenæum 10 Feb. 176/1 Reinout is what Arthur Pendennis might have been in the nineties.
1897 ‘P. Warung’ Tales Old Regime 207 He was an early arrival at the island away back in the 'Nineties.
1913 H. Jackson Eighteen Nineties i. 27 Max Beerbohm, in a delightful essay which could only have been written in the Nineties.
1954 A. S. C. Ross in Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 55 32 It was apparently U and was certainly thriving in the nineties.
1997 GQ Sept. 78/2 Two Bristol boys have, with the aid of three vocalists, created a dark, film noir soundtrack for the Nineties.
2. With possessive adjective. The years of a person's life between turning ninety and one hundred.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > period > year > [noun] > period of specific number of years > decade > specific decade in a century or person's life
seventies1845
nineties1871
twenties1874
the fifties1880
the thirties1880
the forties1885
sixties1964
zeros1989
1871 Atlantic Monthly Jan. 8 Sometimes he brought his great-grandfather to the palace; a brisk old gentleman in his nineties.
1885 Bay State Monthly Jan. 221 The venerable Colonel William Kent, now living at Concord in his nineties, says that Captain Roach one day brought into the store..a friend.
1941 I. S. Cobb Exit Laughing 38 One of his brothers lived to be nearly a hundred, and two of his sisters were in their nineties when they passed on.
1986 C. Kizer Nearness of You 68 Well into his nineties, when a young lady visited him wearing a scrap of skirt..he was riveted to the spot.
2000 BOMB Winter 63/1 Házaro Herrara, still alive and in his nineties today, was one of the seminal son trumpeters in the son boom of the mid-twenties.
3. With the. The degrees of a thermometer from ninety to ninety-nine inclusive Fahrenheit (equivalent to approx. 32–8°C), esp. indicating very hot weather.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > properties of materials > temperature > measurement of temperature > [noun] > instrument > specific degrees on a thermometer
stationary pointa1751
nineties1873
twenties1874
1873 Amer. Naturalist 7 201 The thermometer stood in the nineties, although the heat was considerably tempered by a steady refreshing breeze.
1883 R. L. Stevenson Silverado Squatters i. i. 21 The thermometer..had already climbed among the nineties.
a1911 D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) II. ii. 26 The temperature was up in the high nineties, the hot moist air stood stagnant as a barnyard pool.
1988 F. Burroughs in G. Wolff Best Amer. Ess. (1989) 15 We've had one spell of hot weather—temperature into the nineties.
1995 Daily Tel. 10 July 15/1 Washington is vile at this time of year. The mercury routinely climbs into the nineties, and the city is smothered by a blanket of humidity.
B. adj.
1. In attributive use: of, relating to, or characteristic of the years from ninety to ninety-nine inclusive in a particular century (esp. the nineteenth or twentieth). Cf. fin de siècle adj. and n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > relative time > the past > historical period > [adjective] > of specific centuries, decades, or years
quattrocento1855
twelfth-century1867
fin de siècle1890
seventies1901
ninetyish1909
dix-huitième1920
nineties1933
twentyish1940
thirtyish1962
1933 D. Thomas Let. 25 Dec. (1987) 76 I have..two of the Georgian Anthologies, one of the Imagist Anthologies..the London Mercury Anthology, the Nineties Anthology (what Dowsonery!).
1938 L. MacNeice Mod. Poetry i. 7 The nineties poets did to some extent criticize life.
1962 F. Kermode Poet & Dancer in R. Copeland & M. Cohen What is Dance? (1983) ii. 148 The nineties poets wrote endlessly about dancers..and prepared the way for the serious impact of the Japanese Noh in the next decade.
1971 P. Muir Victorian Illustr. Bks. viii. 194 (heading) Other Nineties people.
1993 Guardian 29 July ii. 14/3 It is interesting, though, that the new nineties feminists, such as Faludi and Wolf, have copied their seventies foremothers' styles.
2000 W. Shaw Westsiders 115 ‘C.R.E.A.M.’—which has become a nineties hip-hop standard—recounts the story of their own flagitious childhoods as dealers, gang-bangers and muggers.
2. In predicative use: characteristic of the years from ninety to ninety-nine inclusive in a particular century (esp. the nineteenth or twentieth).
ΚΠ
1991 Spy (N.Y.) Apr. 6/3 How profound,..how quaintly crazed—how downright nineties of this quintessentially seventies man.
1992 Jerusalem Post (Nexis) 17 Nov. On the dance floor, in spite of the Sixties' attire, the mood was totally Nineties.
1998 I. Mcmillan I found this Shirt 33 And I thought: how Nineties, how fin-de-siecle.
2000 C. Kelly in J. Adams et al. Girls' Night In 154 ‘Molly, curls are so nineties,’ Cassandra says, trying to be helpful.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, September 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1853