Online OXFORD Collocation Dictionary

age noun

¹ how old sb/sth is

ADJ. early, young He was sent away to school at an early age. | advanced, great, old He was still active even at the advanced age of 87. White hair is a sign of great age. She dreaded old age. | middle a pleasant woman in early middle age | childbearing, pensionable, retirement, school, school-leaving, voting, working children of school age

VERB + AGE attain, get to, live to, reach When you get to my age you get a different perspective on life. She lived to the age of 75. | feel, look She was beginning to feel her age (= feel that she was getting old). | lower, raise The voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 years.

AGE + NOUN group, range | limit

PREP. at a/the ~ At your age, I had already started work. | between the ~s children between the ages of five and eleven | by the ~ He could read by the age of four. | for sb's ~ He's quite a big boy for his age. | over the ~ Twelve million people in Great Britain are over retirement age. | under ~ It is illegal to sell alcohol to children who are under age (= not legally old enough). | under the ~ It is illegal to sell alcohol to children under the age of 18. | with ~ A lot of wines improve with age. | ~ of He left school at the age of 18.

PHRASES the age of consent The general age of consent for sexual activity is 16. | sb's own age She needs a friend of her own age to play with. | years of age He's 20 years of age. > See OLD AGE

² period of history

ADJ. another, different This exquisite little hotel seemed to belong to a different age. | Elizabethan, Victorian, etc. | Bronze, Ice, Stone | computer, modern, nuclear, etc. | golden the golden age of cinema

PREP. during the ~ He lived during the Elizabethan age. | in a/the ~ In an age when few women became politicians, her career was unusual. | through the ~s an exhibition of spinning through the ages | ~ of the age of the wireless communication

PHRASES in this day and age (= in the period we now live in) Why dress so formally in this day and age?

³ ages/an age: a very long time

VERB + AGE spend, take It took an age for us all to get on the boat.

PHRASES absolutely ages I've been sitting here for absolutely ages. | ages ago Carlos left ages ago. | for ages We had to wait for ages!

age verb

ADV. considerably, greatly, a lot, really The shock has aged her considerably. My mother has really aged since she became ill. | a little He had put on weight and aged a little. | rapidly, suddenly a rapidly ageing population | prematurely | well This wine has not aged well.