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SEASON
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
One of the natural periods into which the year is divided by the equinoxes and solstices or atmospheric conditions
Example:
the regular sequence of the seasons
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting time and temporal relations
Hypernyms ("season" is a kind of...):
period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "season"):
harvest; harvest time (the season for gathering crops)
haying; haying time (the season for cutting and drying and storing grass as fodder)
autumn; fall (the season when the leaves fall from the trees)
spring; springtime (the season of growth)
summer; summertime (the warmest season of the year; in the northern hemisphere it extends from the summer solstice to the autumnal equinox)
winter; wintertime (the coldest season of the year; in the northern hemisphere it extends from the winter solstice to the vernal equinox)
rainy season; dry season (one of the two seasons in tropical climates)
Holonyms ("season" is a part of...):
year (the period of time that it takes for a planet (as, e.g., Earth or Mars) to make a complete revolution around the sun)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A recurrent time marked by major holidays
Example:
it was the Christmas season
Classified under:
Nouns denoting time and temporal relations
Hypernyms ("season" is a kind of...):
period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "season"):
Lent; Lententide (a period of 40 weekdays from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday)
Shrovetide (immediately preceding Lent)
Advent (the season including the four Sundays preceding Christmas)
Christmas; Christmastide; Christmastime; Noel; Yule; Yuletide (period extending from Dec. 24 to Jan. 6)
Allhallowtide (the season of All Saints' Day)
Twelfthtide (the season of Epiphany)
Eastertide (the Easter season)
Lammastide (the season of Lammas)
Michaelmastide (the season of Michaelmas)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A period of the year marked by special events or activities in some field
Example:
she always looked forward to the avocado season
Classified under:
Nouns denoting time and temporal relations
Hypernyms ("season" is a kind of...):
period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "season"):
Whitsun; Whitsuntide; Whitweek (Christian holiday; the week beginning on Whitsunday (especially the first 3 days))
theatrical season (the season when new plays are produced)
social season (the season for major social events)
hunting season (the season during which it is legal to kill a particular species)
hockey season (the season when hockey is played)
football season (the season when football is played)
fishing season (the season during which it is legal to catch fish)
exhibition season (the time before the regular games begin when football or baseball teams play practice games)
basketball season (the season when basketball is played)
baseball season (the season when baseball is played)
preseason (a period prior to the beginning of the regular season which is devoted to training and preparation)
off-season (the season when travel is least active and rates are lowest)
high season; peak season (the season when travel is most active and rates are highest)
holiday season (a time when many people take holidays)
sheepshearing (the time or season when sheep are sheared)
seedtime (the time during which seeds should be planted)
growing season (the season during which a crop grows best)
II. (verb)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they season ... he / she / it seasons
Past simple: seasoned
Past participle: seasoned
-ing form: seasoning
Sense 1
Meaning:
Make more temperate, acceptable, or suitable by adding something else
Example:
she tempered her criticism
Synonyms:
moderate; mollify; season; temper
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "season" is one way to...):
weaken (lessen the strength of)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Sense 2
Meaning:
Make fit
Example:
This trip will season even the hardiest traveller
Synonyms:
harden; season
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "season" is one way to...):
toughen (make tough or tougher)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s somebody
Sense 3
Meaning:
Lend flavor to
Example:
Season the chicken breast after roasting it
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling
Cause:
savor; savour; taste (have flavor; taste of something)
Domain category:
cookery; cooking; preparation (the act of preparing something (as food) by the application of heat)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "season"):
sauce (dress (food) with a relish)
curry (season with a mixture of spices; typical of Indian cooking)
resinate (impregnate with resin to give a special flavor to)
spice; spice up; zest (add herbs or spices to)
savor; savour (give taste to)
salt (add salt to)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Derivation:
seasoner (something added to food primarily for the savor it imparts)
seasoner (a cook who uses seasonings)
seasoning (the act of adding a seasoning to food)
seasoning (something added to food primarily for the savor it imparts)
Context examples:
The next Martian dust storm season is expected to begin this summer and last into early 2019.
(Dust Storms Linked to Gas Escape from Mars Atmosphere, NASA)
This was the season of happiness to Marianne.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Thus in the season of the waning days the might of England put forth on to the waters.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It's the last good night there will be, this season; and there's a singer there, whom she really ought to hear.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
He was sorry that the season prevented him from placing game upon the table, but there was so much sitting round it that it would perhaps be hardly missed (cheers and laughter).
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Oh! How unlike it was to the blue seasons of the south!
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
This is quite the season indeed for friendly meetings.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
It seems that he has been seal-hunting regularly each season for a dozen years, and is accounted one of the two or three very best boat-steerers in both fleets.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
He linked the past with the present, and the eternity behind him throbbed through him in a mighty rhythm to which he swayed as the tides and seasons swayed.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
The geographic pattern of expansion varied from season to season, with the largest differences along the Sahara's northern and southern boundaries.
(New study finds world’s largest desert, the Sahara, has grown by 10 percent since 1920, National Science Foundation)
