old age

noun

a late time of life (Freq. 1)

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old age is not for sissies

-

he's showing his years

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age hasn't slowed him down at all

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a beard white with eld

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on the brink of geezerhood

• Syn: ↑years, ↑age, ↑eld, ↑geezerhood

• Derivationally related forms: ↑geezer (for: ↑geezerhood), ↑age (for: ↑age)

• Hypernyms: ↑time of life

• Hyponyms: ↑dotage, ↑second childhood, ↑senility

• Part Meronyms:

↑sixties, ↑mid-sixties, ↑seventies, ↑mid-seventies, ↑eighties, ↑mid-eighties, ↑nineties, ↑mid-nineties

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noun

Etymology: Middle English

1. : the final stage of the normal life span : senescence

for purposes of the conference old age was considered to be 65 years or over — Progressive Labor World

2. : the final stage in a cycle of erosion — compare adolescence, infancy, maturity

plains that illustrate the extreme of erosional old age — V.C.Finch & G.T.Trewartha

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—old-age, adj.

the last period of human life, now often considered to be the years after 65.

[1300-50; ME]

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old age noun

The later part of life

• • •

Main Entry: ↑old

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old age UK US noun [uncountable]

the period of time when you are old

More and more people are surviving into old age.

my/​your/​her etc old age:

I need someone to look after me in my old age.

Thesaurus: old age and relating to old age_hyponym

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old age,

the years of life from about 65 on in human beings.

–old´-age´, adjective.

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n. the later part of normal life

loneliness affects many people in old age

■ the state of being old

old age itself is not a disease

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noun [noncount]

: the fact of being old

She died of old age.

: the time of life when a person is old

He's getting sweeter in his old age.

old-age adj, always used before a noun

an old-age home

(Brit) He is eligible to receive an old-age pension.

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ˌold ˈage noun uncountable

the time of your life when you are old

•

Old age can bring many problems.

•

He lived alone

in his old age

.

 

Culture:

old age [old age]

Society is getting older. In 1990 about 14% of the population of the US was over 60, in 2020 it will be about 20%. In Britain there was a 27% increase in the number of people over 65 between 1971 and 2002. With further developments in medicine more and more people can expect to live a long time. This means that senior citizens (= people over about 65) may become a more powerful group, but it also means that services for them will need to improve. As people live longer, the question of how to pay for retirement has become an important social and political issue for governments. Many people may need to work beyond the normal retirement age of 65. For people who have enough money from their ↑pension and who are in good health, the years of retirement may be an opportunity to do some of the things they did not have time for when they were working. Some people take courses, some go on more holidays/vacations, others do voluntary work and continue to use the skills they learned for their job. Public transport, theatres, and sometimes restaurants give discounts to retired people to encourage them to go out. In the US especially, senior citizens are expected to be active, if their health permits, and the sight of a 70-year-old lifting weights in a gym is not uncommon. Many elderly people, however, have a more difficult old age. Those who rely on the British state pension or US ↑social security have to spend most of their money on food and heating and have little left for luxuries (= expensive pleasures). Others have poor health and cannot move around easily. Some are afraid to go out in case they are attacked and robbed. Many are lonely.

Older Americans who can afford a comfortable retirement may move to states like ↑Florida and ↑Arizona where the weather is warm all year. Many choose assisted living in an apartment in a retirement community, where there is somebody nearby to provide help if they need it. If they become ill they may need to move into a nursing home where they can get special medical care. Often the patient’s husband or wife can live there too. The cost of nursing homes is very high, and while many are excellent, others are not good. A few older people live with their children, but Americans do not usually want to be dependent on their children.

In Britain, too, elderly people like to be independent and to live in their own home for as long as possible. Those who find it difficult to look after themselves may have a home help for a few hours each week. Some may use a ↑meals on wheels service. Some towns have pensioners’ clubs which serve cheap meals. People who are less able to get about may be taken each day to a day centre run by organizations like ↑Age Concern where they can be with other people. As in the US, some elderly people move into sheltered accommodation or warden housing. Others go to live with one of their children. Many families, however, do not have room for their elderly relatives or do not want them to live with them. When these people can no longer care for themselves they have to move into a care home.

In Britain especially, elderly people get less respect than they do in many other societies. Nicknames such as ‘wrinklies’, ‘crumblies’, ‘old codgers’ and ‘old buffers’ are sometimes used to describe them in a cruel way. Elderly people are often thought by younger people to have little to contribute to society and to be a burden on the rest of the population. They used to be referred to as old age pensioners or OAPs but the name ‘senior citizens’ was introduced as part of a campaign to give the elderly a more positive image.

 

Collocations:

The ages of life

Childhood/youth

be born and raised/bred in Oxford; into a wealthy/middle-class family

have a happy/an unhappy/a tough childhood

grow up in a musical family/an orphanage; on a farm

be/grow up an only child (= with no brothers or sisters)

reach/hit/enter/go through adolescence/puberty

be in your teens/early twenties/mid-twenties/late twenties

undergo/experience physical/psychological changes

give in to/succumb to/resist peer pressure

assert your independence/individuality

Adulthood

leave school/university/home

go out to work (at sixteen)

get/find a job/partner

be/get engaged/married

have/get a wife/husband/mortgage/steady job

settle down and have kids/children/a family

begin/start/launch/build a career (in politics/science/the music industry)

prove (to be)/represent/mark/reach a (major) turning point for sb/in your life/career

reach/be well into/settle into middle age

have/suffer/go through a midlife crisis

take/consider early retirement

approach/announce/enjoy your retirement

Old age

have/see/spend time with your grandchildren

take up/pursue/develop a hobby

get/receive/draw/collect/live on a pension

approach/save for/die from old age

live to a ripe old age

reach the grand old age of 102/23 (often ironic)

be/become/be getting/be going senile (often ironic)

die (peacefully)/pass away in your sleep/after a brief illness

 

Example Bank:

•

He attained a good old age and died content.

•

He took up golf in his old age.

•

Loss of hearing often occurs in old age.

•

She can look forward to a happy old age.

•

She lived to the ripe old age of 98.

•

She was now well into old age.

•

fears about a lonely old age