adult1 nounadult2 adjective
adultad‧ult1 /ˈædʌlt, əˈdʌlt/ ●●● S2 W2 AWL noun [countable] 
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Children cannot be admitted to the museum unless they are accompanied by an adult.
- Prosecutors are seeking to have the 15-year-old defendant tried as an adult.
- Since I left school, my parents have started to treat me like an adult.
- The cost of the trip is $59 for adults and $30 for children.
- An adult has a vast array of comparatively complex schemata that permit a great number of differentiations.
- Ann became a Catholic as an adult and entered the book trade working at a Catholic bookshop in Exeter.
- Being responsible for my sons turned me into an adult as had nothing else in the forty years before.
- But when I became an adult, I began to see the importance of those abstract principles in a personal way.
- Children related to him so much because they saw in him an adult who behaved in the way that they did.
- Choice, in almost all its facets, is diminished in the life of an illiterate adult.
- The adult replies: Oh, come on.
Longman Language Activatoradult
someone who is no longer a child - use this to talk about someone who is at least 18: · The cost of the trip is $59 for adults and $30 for children.· Since I left school, my parents have started to treat me like an adult.· Children cannot be admitted to the museum unless they are accompanied by an adult.
an adult - used especially by children or when you are talking to children: · Grown-ups are so boring! All they ever do is talk!· At home there was always a grown-up to turn to if you were in trouble.
an adult man or woman - used especially when you think someone is not behaving in the way an adult should behave: · Elsie had never seen a grown man cry before.· He' s a grown man - he should be able to cook for himself!· She's crazy -- a grown woman letting a girl order her around like that.
a full-grown or fully grown animal has reached its full adult size: · A full-grown blue whale may be up to 30 metres long.· Many of these animals die before they are fully grown.· Will my tank be big enough for all these fish when they are fully grown?
to become an adult · What do you want to be when you grow up?· We plan to go and live in Florida when the children have all grown up.
to become fully grown or developed: · Girls tend to mature more quickly than boys, both physically and emotionally.· The fly matures in only seven days.
to reach the age when you have the legal rights and responsibilities of an adult, usually 18 or 21 - used in legal contexts: · Emma will inherit a fortune when she comes of age.· They planned to marry as soon as she came of age.
the time when someone is an adult the part of someone's life when they are an adult: · He has spent most of his adult life in the States.
the time when someone is an adult - use this especially to talk about people reaching this time: · Children with the disease have little chance of surviving to adulthood.reach adulthood: · Nowadays young people want to leave home as soon as they reach adulthood.
if a person, animal, or plant reaches maturity , they have grown or developed completely: reach maturity: · The plant reaches maturity after two years.· Sharks take 10 years to reach maturity.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
an appallingly high infant mortality rate (=number of babies who die) It’s time you started acting like a responsible adult.COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADJECTIVE
1a fully-grown person, or one who is considered to be legally responsible for their actions: (=for adults)· They run adult education classes at the local community college.
· Many adult learners also work full-time.
an appallingly high infant mortality rate (=number of babies who die)· A third of the adult population pay no tax at all.
It’s time you started acting like a responsible adult.· By implication, the healthy female is not the healthy adult.· In a healthy adult the amount lost in this way is negligible. 2.· It isn't dangerous to a healthy adult or child, but it can be harmful to a foetus.· Figure 2.7 shows the typical patterning of sleep through the night, as shown by a healthy adult.· They compared the finger and palm prints of 64 healthy adult males and 90 males with duodenal ulcers.
· Piaget was not the first to draw our attention to the fact that children's behaviour is different from mature adult behaviour.· Nobody told you to flirt with me like a grown mature responsible adult man would do.
· They recognize that their overall goal is to launch their child into the world, as an independent and responsible young adult.· Nobody told you to flirt with me like a grown mature responsible adult man would do.
· Both videos are sparkling situation comedies written especially for adult and young adult learners.· Q: My 8-year-old has shown an interest in young adult horror books.· Haas, now a gangly young adult, appears to still be acting with Amish reserve.· Depending upon the social circles in which the young adult moves there will be more or less pressure towards getting married.· This creates a real problem in the life of a young adult.· That includes more than £150,000 to projects supervising offenders through the young adult offenders grant scheme.· From the 1840s child and young adult mortality contributed most of the decline.
NOUN· On the other hand, there were grave limitations in using existing adult education institutions for radical education and action.· Elsewhere, urban centres did not experience the anticipated post-war expansion in liberal adult education.· This category was clearly intended to introduce and promote study opportunities in liberal adult education.· This has always been one of the basic ingredients of good adult education.· This latter ideology is in fact one which runs through most of the liberal adult education tradition in Britain.· Yet community education in working-class communities has not grown to offer a radical alternative to traditional adult education provision.· Organised adult education groups can be found, and the local library may have details of organised parties and expeditions.· Does he agree that there is another worry about separating vocational from non-vocational adult education?
· Both videos are sparkling situation comedies written especially for adult and young adult learners.
· Her whole adult life was a triumph of determination over a body that could have condemned her to permanent invalidism.· Throughout his early adult life he passed from one religious system to another, unable to derive lasting spiritual satisfaction form any.· The data indicate that dimorphism in adult size may be associated with mortality bias differences brought about by dissimilar adult life styles.· Born and raised in San Francisco, the 71-year-old Rosenberg has been preaching philanthropy his entire adult life.· In our own society there is no such clear transition from childhood to adult life.· A whole adult life in only seventeen years.
· In that year the proportion of convicted adult males given a custodial sentence had reached a low of 15 percent.· On the one hand, Mormonism was partially democratized in that virtually every adult male could be ordained a priest.· They compared the finger and palm prints of 64 healthy adult males and 90 males with duodenal ulcers.· The hunters are the half dozen or so experienced adult males in the group.
· Our model analyses size dimorphism with differential adult mortality.· From the 1840s child and young adult mortality contributed most of the decline.· We argue that selection for dwarfism results from reduced intrasexual competition through high differential adult mortality between the sexes.
· Higher percentages of the elderly than of the general adult population live in accommodation built before 1919 that is often poorly maintained.· Together, these 60 million people represent more than one third of the entire adult population.· As a whole group they are in relative or absolute poverty, in contrast to the general adult population of working age.· It had a staggering seven hundred thousand members, a figure that counted more than half of the entire adult population.· This meant that the citizens comprised a quarter or less of the total adult population.
· Congressional elections are by universal and compulsory adult suffrage with one-third of the senators elected indirectly.· All elections are by universal adult suffrage.· There is a unicameral Legislative Assembly of 70 seats, 62 of which are elected by universal adult suffrage for five years.· The unicameral legislature, the National Assembly, is also elected for a five-year term by universal adult suffrage.· There is a Federal Assembly of 42 members, elected by universal adult suffrage for a five-year term.· Legislative authority is now vested in a unicameral National Congress, with 100 members elected for five years by universal adult suffrage.
Some children find it difficult to talk to adults.2a fully-grown animal: The adults have white bodies and grey backs.adult1 nounadult2 adjective
adultadult2 ●●● W3 AWL adjective WORD ORIGINadult2
Origin:
1500-1600 Latin past participle of adolescere ‘to grow up’EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Adult magazines in shops must be kept where children cannot see them.
- It was thought that the skull was too small and light to belong to an adult male.
- Over 30% of the adult population were illiterate.
- Soon the skin of the pupa splits open, and the fully-formed adult butterfly emerges.
- The book is intended for adult readers.
- The disease can be very serious in adult animals.
- The government has announced plans to increase spending on adult education.
- You need to deal with your problems in an adult way.
- But escalation is not usually associated with adult sexuality.
- Forman gives us a version of Flynt as an impish, natural man, the Bart Simpson of the adult publishing world.
- From what I saw, the repression all seemed to originate externally, from parents and the rest of adult society.
- In his adult life all these painful thoughts had been buried but still caused a great deal of unhappiness.
- R: Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
- Some former course members have since obtained fulltime teaching posts in adult education.
- Ten adult elephants - each with a number painted on it - were successfully moved and released in this fashion.
- They attempt to adopt adult word forms and use them with increasing consistency from one occasion to the next.
Longman Language Activatoradult
someone who is no longer a child - use this to talk about someone who is at least 18: · The cost of the trip is $59 for adults and $30 for children.· Since I left school, my parents have started to treat me like an adult.· Children cannot be admitted to the museum unless they are accompanied by an adult.
an adult - used especially by children or when you are talking to children: · Grown-ups are so boring! All they ever do is talk!· At home there was always a grown-up to turn to if you were in trouble.
an adult man or woman - used especially when you think someone is not behaving in the way an adult should behave: · Elsie had never seen a grown man cry before.· He' s a grown man - he should be able to cook for himself!· She's crazy -- a grown woman letting a girl order her around like that.
a full-grown or fully grown animal has reached its full adult size: · A full-grown blue whale may be up to 30 metres long.· Many of these animals die before they are fully grown.· Will my tank be big enough for all these fish when they are fully grown?
to become an adult · What do you want to be when you grow up?· We plan to go and live in Florida when the children have all grown up.
to become fully grown or developed: · Girls tend to mature more quickly than boys, both physically and emotionally.· The fly matures in only seven days.
to reach the age when you have the legal rights and responsibilities of an adult, usually 18 or 21 - used in legal contexts: · Emma will inherit a fortune when she comes of age.· They planned to marry as soon as she came of age.
the time when someone is an adult the part of someone's life when they are an adult: · He has spent most of his adult life in the States.
the time when someone is an adult - use this especially to talk about people reaching this time: · Children with the disease have little chance of surviving to adulthood.reach adulthood: · Nowadays young people want to leave home as soon as they reach adulthood.
if a person, animal, or plant reaches maturity , they have grown or developed completely: reach maturity: · The plant reaches maturity after two years.· Sharks take 10 years to reach maturity.
someone or something that has finished growing a fully-grown person, animal, or plant has reached the size that it will stay at: · A fully grown elephant can weigh several tons.· Jim was six foot at the age of fourteen, even before he was fully grown.· The shrubs were transplanted fully grown from other parts of the country.
: adult animal/insect/female etc an animal that has developed fully and finished growing - use this especially in scientific contexts when you are comparing older and younger animals: · The disease can be very serious in adult animals.· It was thought that the skull was too small and light to belong to an adult male.· Soon the skin of the pupa splits open, and the fully-formed adult butterfly emerges.
a plant or animal that is mature has finished growing and developing: · The house has a lovely garden surrounded by mature oak trees.· A hen is a mature female chicken, more than ten months old.
books, films, or pictures that are about sex also porn informal films, magazines, or pictures that show sexual acts and are intended to make people feel sexually excited: · It is now clear that there is a link between pornography and sex crimes.hard-core pornography (=very pornographic materials, which may be illegal): · Two trucks full of hard-core pornography were seized by customs officials today.hard porn (=very pornographic): · a back-street movie theater showing hard-porn moviessoft porn (=slightly pornographic material): · 81 per cent of our readers said they regularly watched soft-porn movies.
a pornographic film, magazine, or picture shows or describes sexual acts in order to make people sexually excited: · He admitted possessing nude photographs, but denied they were pornographic.· She was offered $50,000 to pose for a pornographic magazine.
an erotic book, film, painting etc shows or describes sexual acts in a way that is deliberately sexually exciting but is also artistic: · He wrote both poetry and erotic literature.· A number of scenes in the film were very erotic.
: adult film/magazine/entertainment etc an adult film etc is not suitable for children or young people because it shows sexual acts or images: · Adult magazines in shops must be kept where children cannot see them.
a steamy play, film etc shows sexual acts that people find exciting and slightly shocking: · The movie contains some pretty steamy scenes!· His latest production is a steamy thriller set in Hong Kong.
a raunchy film, performance etc has a lot of parts in it that are about sex, and that are slightly exciting, amusing, or shocking: · Bette Midler came up with a typically raunchy performance that delighted the audience.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY He lived most of his adult life in Scotland.COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES an appallingly high infant mortality rate (=number of babies who die) It’s time you started acting like a responsible adult.COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSNOUN
1[only before noun] fully grown or developed: He lived most of his adult life in Scotland. (=for adults)· They run adult education classes at the local community college.
· Many adult learners also work full-time.
an appallingly high infant mortality rate (=number of babies who die)· A third of the adult population pay no tax at all.
It’s time you started acting like a responsible adult.· Many adult children gain great happiness from caring for a much-loved parent in the closing years of their life.· She had two adult children who lived nearby, and had stopped visiting them as was her usual custom.· The couple have three adult children, Henrietta, Andreas and Christopher.· Currently, legal immigrants can sponsor parents, siblings and adult children.· All of a sudden, they have to address parenting issues and deal with their addicted adult children.
· For instance, an adult female will purr while suckling her kittens and when she courts a male.· Capturing the animals entails shooting the adult females, whose skulls are sold to tourists.· Overall 15 percent of adult females and 12 percent of males defined themselves as carers.· Immature females interacted with adult females primarily when the latter were lactating; immature males did so when they were in oestrus.· Anything, in fact, except a normal, healthy, adult female.
· The problem with adult learners is that they already have strategies for grammatical analysis and can efficiently use context in communication.· The unit-based certificate is seen as appropriate for adult learners.· The objective of the Resource Book is to allow your adult learners to pursue their studies in their own time.
· In his adult life all these painful thoughts had been buried but still caused a great deal of unhappiness.· Rhode Island native Charlie spent the better part of his adult life collecting Elvis Presley memorabilia.· The number of people in this country whose hearing has become impaired in adult life is very large indeed.· A native of Richmond, he lived much of his adult life bouncing around the West Coast via train or sometimes car.· Thus the simple but overall goal is that children should grow up properly equipped for adult life.· For the first time in my adult life, I had played a role that really satisfied me.· This is one reason why hearing impairment in childhood is totally different from hearing loss in adult life.· Gradually, the viewer becomes aware that they represent the three key stages in adult life.
· Being an adult male, he was at the end of the line for inoculations.· The adult males move in larger home ranges that are superimposed spatially upon those of the females.· Airbags, designed for adult males, may punch outward too forcefully for children and small adults.· Since the population of adult males in Britain is many million, there are obvious savings to be made using these techniques.· The adult males are dark, the females and young are sandy-brown.
· But the officers also found adolescent girls lodged in hostels with adult men and children living without adults to care for them.· I feel embarrassed, now that I let adult men kneel before me and shine my shoes.· The incidence of severe pancreatitis discharges among adult men also correlated significantly with the alcohol consumption in the country.· Tears had run on his cheeks as she had never seen tears coming from an adult man before.
· The Council tax is based on the capital value of each property, on the assumption that it contains two adult members.· All major decisions are taken by a general assembly in which each adult member of a kibbutz has the right to vote.
· Of 61 adult patients with untreated coeliac disease, 57 had abnormal results giving a sensitivity of 0.93.· These decisions have no application to adult patients.· Considerable rises in the number of adult patients are forecast by the year 2000.· Increasingly, adult patients are achieving independence, careers, and impressive educational attainments.
· By the summer of 1809 on land and sea, 786,000 men were serving - one in ten of the adult population.· Significantly, the adult populations in Pembrokeshire and Somerset showed similar ranges of variability.· The conventional wisdom in the gay community is that 10 percent of the adult population is gay or lesbian.· They estimate an average annual consumption of 15 litres of whisky per head of the adult population.· Half of the adult population never fully develops formal operational reasoning.
· He has an adult son, David, and is also a Mid Suffolk district councillor.· She has an adult son and daughter in London.· He was married with two adult sons.
· The repression can be total in adult women, hence their frigidity.· The majority are adult women workers in below-average-income families laboring in unskilled jobs, often in the retail sector.· About 40 percent. of Britain's adult women part-time workers would benefit from Labour's proposal for a minimum wage.· I use the word consciously, very much aware that it has been used in the past to demean adult women.· She would listen to him in the way that no adult woman ever would.· Adults, adult women in particular, are subscribing to this expansionism for themselves without question.· We can not adopt a parallel assumption about adult women....
· When the parents were home in Avon, they maintained an adult world that often excluded the children.· Piggy wanted a sign from the adult world as he thought they were civilised even though they were at war.· Personality formation continues when and if the adolescent begins to adapt the self to the adult world.· With her infant's intuition, Victoria knew that major shifts were taking place in the adult world above her head.· Yet we systematically deny these individuals the opportunity to engage in meaningful ways with the adult world.
an adult lion the adult population He lived most of his adult life in Scotland.2typical of an adult’s behaviour or of the things adults do: dealing with problems in an adult way That wasn’t very adult of you.3[only before noun] adult films, magazines etc are about sex or related to sex: The film is rated R for language and adult themes.