dating

date ¹  (dt)

n.

1.

a. Time stated in terms of the day, month, and year.

b. A statement of calendar time, as on a document.

2. A specified day of a month.

3.

a. A particular point or period of time at which something happened or existed, or is expected to happen.

b. dates The years of someone's birth and death: Beethoven's dates were 1770 to 1827.

4. The time during which something lasts; duration.

5. The time or historical period to which something belongs: artifacts of a later date.

6. An appointment: a luncheon date with a client; a date with destiny. See Synonyms at engagement.

7.

a. An engagement to go out socially with another person, often out of romantic interest.

b. One's companion on such an outing.

8. An engagement for a performance: has four singing dates this month.

v. dat·ed, dat·ing, dates

v.tr.

1. To mark or supply with a date: date a letter.

2. To determine the date of: date a fossil.

3. To betray the age of: Pictures of old cars date the book.

4. To go on a date or dates with.

v.intr.

1. To have origin in a particular time in the past: This statue dates from 500 b.c.

2. To become old-fashioned.

3. To go on dates.

Idioms:

out of date

No longer in style; old-fashioned: clothes that went out of date last year.

to date

Until now: To date, only half of those invited have responded.

up to date

In or into accordance with current information, styles, or technology: brought me up to date on the project's status.

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[Middle English, from Old French, from Medieval Latin data, from Latin data (Romae), issued (at Rome) (on a certain day), feminine past participle of dare, to give; see d- in Indo-European roots.]

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data·ble, datea·ble adj.

dater n.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

dating - use of chemical analysis to estimate the age of geological specimens geological dating chemical analysis, qualitative analysis - the act of decomposing a substance into its constituent elements potassium-argon dating - geological dating that relies on the proportions of radioactive potassium in a rock sample and its decay product, argon carbon dating, carbon-14 dating, radiocarbon dating - a chemical analysis used to determine the age of organic materials based on their content of the radioisotope carbon-14; believed to be reliable up to 40,000 years rubidium-strontium dating - geological dating based on the proportions of radioactive rubidium into its decay product strontium; radioactive rubidium has a half-life of 47,000,000,000 years