open season

See synonyms for open season on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a specific season or time of year when it is legal to catch or hunt for fish or game protected at all other times by the law.

  2. a period of time in which a person or thing is exposed to criticism, attack, or recrimination: Election year is open season on all incumbents.

Origin of open season

1
An Americanism dating back to 1895–1900

Words Nearby open season

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use open season in a sentence

  • Don't you know that the law is on moose and caribou, and that there won't be an open season for at least five more years?

  • Then there is the lure of the water, which explains more than half his school truancy during the open season.

  • When the open season comes along I will drop out here and get the antlers.

  • So numerous were the pheasants at this time that on the first day of this open season about 50,000 were shot by the hunters.

    Our Domestic Birds | John H. Robinson
  • He had been away on this distant work all the open season of 1889-90.

    The Pacification of Burma | Sir Charles Haukes Todd Crosthwaite

British Dictionary definitions for open season

open season

noun
  1. a specified period of time in the year when it is legal to hunt or kill game or fish protected at other times by law

  2. (often foll by on) a time when criticism or mistreatment is common: open season on women employees

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012