English
season
Pronunciation
  • enPR: sēʹzən; (RP, America) IPA: /ˈsiː.zən/
Etymology 1

From Middle English sesoun, from Old French seson, from Latin satiō from satum, past participle of serō ("to sow, plant") from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁-.

Noun

season (plural seasons)

  1. Each of the four divisions of a year: spring, summer, autumn (fall) and winter
    Synonyms: yeartide, yeartime
    • c. 1705, Joseph Addison, Remarks on several parts of Italy, &c. in the years 1701, 1702, 1703:
      we saw, in six days' traveling, the several seasons of the year in their beauty and perfection
  2. A part of a year when something particular happens.
    mating season
    the rainy season
    the football season
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC ↗:
      Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.
  3. A period of the year in which a place is most busy or frequented for business, amusement, etc.
    • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
      He seldom was seen in the office himself, but occasionally a paragraph in the paper recorded that his yacht had touched at Mentone and that he had been seen at the Monte Carlo tables, or that he was expected in Leicestershire for the season.
  4. (cricket) The period over which a series of Test matches are played.
  5. (obsolete) That which gives relish; seasoning.
    • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene i]:
      O! she is fallen
      Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea
      Hath drops too few to wash her clean again,
      And salt too little which may season give
      To her foul-tainted flesh.
    • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene iv]:
      You lack the season of all natures, sleep.
  6. (North America, Australia, broadcasting) A group of episodes of a television or radio program broadcast in regular intervals with a long break between each group, usually with one year between the beginning of each.
    Synonyms: series
    The third season of Friends aired from 1996 to 1997.
  7. (archaic) An extended, undefined period of time.
    • 1656, John Owen, The Mortification of Sin:
      So it is in a person when a breach hath been made upon his conscience, quiet, perhaps credit, by his lust, in some eruption of actual sin; — carefulness, indignation, desire, fear, revenge are all set on work about it and against it, and lust is quiet for a season, being run down before them; but when the hurry is over and the inquest is past, the thief appears again alive, and is as busy as ever at his work.
    • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
      A season of great doubt fell upon her soul.
  8. (video games) The full set of downloadable content for a game, which can be purchased with a season pass.
  9. (video games) A fixed period of time in a massively multiplayer online game in which new content (themes, rules, modes, etc.) becomes available, sometimes replacing earlier content.
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

season (seasons, present participle seasoning; simple past and past participle seasoned)

  1. (transitive) To habituate, accustom, or inure (someone or something) to a particular use, purpose, or circumstance.
    to season oneself to a climate
  2. (transitive, by extension) To prepare by drying or hardening, or removal of natural juices.
    The timber needs to be seasoned.
  3. (intransitive) To become mature; to grow fit for use; to become adapted to a climate.
  4. (intransitive) To become dry and hard, by the escape of the natural juices, or by being penetrated with other substance.
    The wood has seasoned in the sun.
  5. (transitive) To mingle: to moderate, temper, or qualify by admixture.
  6. (obsolete) To impregnate (literally or figuratively).
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Etymology 2

From French assaisonner.

Verb

season (seasons, present participle seasoning; simple past and past participle seasoned)

  1. (transitive) To flavour food with spices, herbs or salt.
Translations

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