Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Being in an early period of life, development, or growth.
  • adjective Newly begun or formed; not advanced.
  • adjective Relating to, typical of, or suggestive of youth or early life.
  • adjective Lacking experience; immature.
  • adjective Being the junior of two people having the same name.
  • adjective Geology Being of an early stage in a geologic cycle. Used of bodies of water and land formations.
  • noun Young persons considered as a group; youth.
  • noun Offspring; brood.
  • idiom (with young) Pregnant. Used of an animal.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Being in the first or early stage of life; not long born; not yet arrived at maturity or full age; not old: said of animals: as, a young child; a young man; a young horse.
  • Being in the first or early stage of growth: as, a young plant; a young tree.
  • Being in the first or early part of existence generally; not yet far advanced, of long duration, or of full development; recent; newly come to pass or to be.
  • Having the appearance and freshness or vigor of youth; youthful in look or feeling; fresh; vigorous.
  • Having little experience; ignorant; raw; green.
  • Pertaining or relating to youth; spent or passed during youth; youthful: as, in his younger days he was very hot-headed.
  • Junior: applied to the younger of two persons, especially when they have the same name or title: as, young Mr. Thomas Ray called with a message from his father.
  • Newly or lately arrived.
  • noun Offspring collectively.
  • In physical geography, exhibiting an early stage of the geographic cycle, when sculpture or dissection is not far advanced.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The offspring of animals, either a single animal or offspring collectively.
  • noun with child; pregnant.
  • adjective Not long born; still in the first part of life; not yet arrived at adolescence, maturity, or age; not old; juvenile; -- said of animals.
  • adjective Being in the first part, pr period, of growth.
  • adjective Having little experience; inexperienced; unpracticed; ignorant; weak.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective In the early part of growth or life; born not long ago.
  • adjective As if young; having the look or qualities of a young person.
  • adjective Of or belonging to the early part of life.
  • adjective Having little experience; inexperienced; unpracticed; ignorant; weak.
  • noun People who are young; young beings.
  • noun The younger generation.
  • noun Offspring.
  • verb To become or seem to become younger
  • verb To cause to appear younger
  • verb geology To exhibit younging

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective not tried or tested by experience
  • adjective being in its early stage
  • noun United States religious leader of the Mormon Church after the assassination of Joseph Smith; he led the Mormon exodus from Illinois to Salt Lake City, Utah (1801-1877)
  • noun United States baseball player and famous pitcher (1867-1955)
  • adjective (of crops) harvested at an early stage of development; before complete maturity
  • noun young people collectively
  • noun United States civil rights leader (1921-1971)
  • noun United States jazz tenor saxophonist (1909-1959)
  • noun United States film and television actress (1913-2000)
  • noun English poet (1683-1765)
  • noun any immature animal
  • adjective suggestive of youth; vigorous and fresh
  • adjective (used of living things especially persons) in an early period of life or development or growth
  • noun British physicist and Egyptologist; he revived the wave theory of light and proposed a three-component theory of color vision; he also played an important role in deciphering the hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone (1773-1829)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English yong, from Old English geong; see yeu- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English yong, from Old English ġeong, from Proto-Germanic *jungaz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yuh₁en-. Compare West Frisian and Dutch jong, German jung, Danish ung.

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Examples

  • God forgives the inattention at Mass of an old man when he sleeps; of a young man when he loves; and the wandering attention of an _old_ man blessed with a _young_ heart the Almighty will surely pardon, for He Himself must admire beauty, since He made it. '

    A German Pompadour Being the Extraordinary History of Wilhelmine van Grävenitz, Landhofmeisterin of Wirtemberg 1905

  • I knew there was no chance for Marian and Anne; they're old maids, and I'm young -- _young_.

    Black Oxen Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton 1902

  • He could hardly refrain from a smile when he came across the sentence, "He was young enough to know better," as he substituted in a large illegible hand the word _old_ for _young_.

    Red Pottage Mary Cholmondeley 1892

  • "She couldn't hev things a-gwine on so as they had been, and she was gwine to make these yer young ones keep better order;" for Dinah herself, somehow, indulged the illusion that she herself was the soul of order, and it was only the _young uns_, and the everybody else in the house, that were the cause of anything that fell short of perfection in this respect.

    The Wit and Humor of America, Volume II. (of X.) Various 1887

  • There would not be any thing essentially wrong in an attachment between these young people, if it sprang up naturally; only it would be necessary to impress upon them the fact that they were _young_, and that for years to come their minds should be largely occupied with other matters.

    A Knight of the Nineteenth Century Edward Payson Roe 1863

  • "She couldn't hev things a gwine on so as they had been, and she was gwine to make these yer young ones keep better order;" for Dinah herself, somehow, indulged the illusion that she, herself, was the soul of order, and it was only the _young uns_, and the everybody else in the house, that were the cause of anything that fell short of perfection in this respect.

    Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe 1853

  • Fled from her heart, yet she is young, is _young_;

    Poems Fanny Kemble 1851

  • WHEN Foote was one day lamenting his growing old, a _pert_ young fellow asked him what he would give to be as _young_ as he.

    The Jest Book The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings Mark Lemon 1839

  • The very best lesson for a horseman, young or old, is colt-breaking; and if in the attempt the _young_ horseman fails to do the colt justice, he will at least do him less injury than the country colt-breaker, or the generality of grooms.

    Hints on Horsemanship, to a Nephew and Niece or, Common Sense and Common Errors in Common Riding George Greenwood 1837

  • Miss Carnaby heard the conversation of her young companions, and she gradually became conscious that William was not a boy; in fact, she began to wonder how she had ever thought so, for he, as she said unto herself, was "certainly a very interesting _young man_."

    Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume XXIII Alexander Leighton 1837

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