nonage
Americannoun
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the period of legal minority, or of an age below 21.
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any period of immaturity.
noun
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law the state of being under any of various ages at which a person may legally enter into certain transactions, such as the making of binding contracts, marrying, etc
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any period of immaturity
Etymology
Origin of nonage
1350–1400; late Middle English < Middle French ( see non-, age); replacing Middle English nownage < Anglo-French nounage; Middle French as above
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Kant saw humanity living deeply irrational lives in a state of self-imposed nonage, capable of being rescued only by an enlightened but autocratic ruler.
From Slate • Aug. 31, 2016
The founding father of black humor in a new, splendidly gutty translation of his classic about the bitter, unbreakable orphan whose childhood and nonage were a lugubrious epic of squalor, filth, misery and hatred.
From Time Magazine Archive
His "hoy," "bunk" and "bull" stories, his hoaxes, false fronts and fabrications were easily detected and. cast out when he was in his professional nonage.
From Time Magazine Archive
But this is no longer a child-nation, irresponsible in its nonage and incapable of comprehending or assuming the responsibilities of its acts.
From Problems of Expansion As Considered In Papers and Addresses by Reid, Whitelaw
The theatre was what chiefly lured him; he had written plays in his nonage, and he now proposed to do them on a large scale, and so get some of the easy dollars of Broadway.
From A Book of Prefaces by Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
