Pronunciations (2)
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/ɛld/
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ɛld
Noun
One's age, age in years, period of life.
Usage- dialectal
- Rare
- Uncountable
- Examples
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A forlyued cok leiþ eiren in his laste elde... and ȝif any venemous worme sittiþ on broode þerevppon in þe canyculer dayes, þerof is igendrid... a cocatrice.
More examples (1)
The experience of many years gave old men peculiar qualification for various offices; and elders, or men of a ripe or advanced eld or age, were variously employed under the Mosaic law.
Promptly appeared a paragon, aged twenty-five or thereabouts, and exhibiting all the steadiness and serenity of advanced eld.
Old age, senility; an old person.
Usage- Archaic
- Poetic
- Uncountable
- Synonyms
- Examples
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More examples (1)
Dotard, (ſaide he) let be thy deepe aduiſe; Seemes that through many yeares thy wits thee faile, And that weake eld hath left thee nothing wiſe, Els neuer ſhould thy iudgement be ſo frayle, To meaſure manhood by the ſword or mayle.
Taught he not thee—the man of eld, / Whose eyes within his eyes beheld / Heaven's numerous hierarchy span / The mystic gulf from God to man?
As some true chief of men, bowed down with stress Of life's disastrous eld, on blossoming youth May gaze, and murmur with self-pity and ruth […]
More examples (3)
Whithersoever she had fared, she had seen nothing but youths fatuously prostrate to her—not one upright figure which she could respect. There were the middle-aged men, the old men, who did not bow down to her; but from middle-age, as from eld, she had a sanguine aversion.
The withered limbs of eld, the thin, gray hair […]
the alien wife / No crown of honour was as eld drew on.
Time; an age, an indefinitely long period of time.
Usage- Archaic
- Poetic
- Uncountable
Former ages, antiquity, olden times.
Usage- Archaic
- Poetic
- Uncountable
- Synonyms
- Examples
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The ship and all in it are imbued with the spirit of Eld. The crew glide to and fro like the ghosts of buried centuries ...
More examples (1)
Once adown the dewy way a youthful cavalier spurred with a maiden mounted behind him, swiftly passing out of sight, recalling to the imagination some romance of eld, when the damosel fled with her lover.
Adjective
Old.
Usage- Obsolete
- Synonyms
Verb
To age, become or grow old.
Usage- Archaic
- dialectal
- Intransitive
- Poetic
To delay; linger.
Usage- Archaic
- Intransitive
- Poetic
To make old, age.
Usage- Archaic
- Poetic
- Transitive
Noun
a late time of life
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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old age is not for sissies
he's showing his years
More examples (3)
age hasn't slowed him down at all
a beard white with eld
on the brink of geezerhood
a time of life (usually defined in years) at which some particular qualification or power arises
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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she was now of school age
tall for his eld