vintage

[vin-tij]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR vintage ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

the wine from a particular harvest or crop.

the annual produce of the grape harvest, especially with reference to the wine obtained.

an exceptionally fine wine from the crop of a good year.

the time of gathering grapes, or of winemaking.

the act or process of producing wine; winemaking.

the class of a dated object with reference to era of production or use: a hat of last year's vintage.

adjective

of or relating to wines or winemaking.

being of a specified vintage: Vintage wines are usually more expensive than nonvintage wines.

representing the high quality of a past time: vintage cars; vintage movies.

old-fashioned or obsolete: vintage jokes.

being the best of its kind: They praised the play as vintage O'Neill.

verb (used with object), vin·taged, vin·tag·ing.

to gather or harvest (grapes) for wine-making: The muscats were vintaged too early.

to make (wine) from grapes: a region that vintages a truly great champagne.

verb (used without object), vin·taged, vin·tag·ing.

to harvest grapes for wine-making.

Origin of vintage

1400–50; late Middle English (noun) < Anglo-French, equivalent to vint(er) vintner + -age -age; replacing Middle English vindage, vendage < Anglo-French; Old French vendange < Latin vīndēmia grape-gathering, equivalent to vīn(um) grape, wine + -dēmia a taking away (dēm(ere) to take from (see redeem) + -ia -y³)

Related formsnon·vin·tage, adjective, nounun·vin·taged, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for vintage

wine, prime, old, classical, classic, choice, best, origin, generation, collection, epoch, era, harvest, grapes, year, excellent, mature, rare, ripe, select

Examples from the Web for vintage

Contemporary Examples of vintage

He was an on-and-off drug addict and sometimes a criminal; he was a collector of switchblades and vintage Disney T-shirts.
‘All Good Cretins Go to Heaven’: Dee Dee Ramone’s Twisted Punk Paintings
Melissa Leon
December 15, 2014
Their fighting was poorly coordinated, their weapons were vintage pieces, mostly seized from the Ukrainian military.
East Ukraine: Back in the USSR
Jamie Dettmer
November 19, 2014
In 1998, Joel Thomas Zimmerman was 16 years old, noodling around with vintage DOS music software like Impulse Tracker.
Mickey Mouse Takes Deadmau5 to Court
Jay Michaelson
September 3, 2014
Its microclimate and soil cannot be replicated, nor can the wine (a bottle of the 1999 vintage fetches $1,795).
Napa’s Earthquake Is Not The Only Thing Shaking The Vineyards
Clive Irving
August 31, 2014
It was on the Internet that Amoruso turned her love of vintage clothing into a successful business.
Basics Beware: We're All Girl Bosses Now
Rachel Hills
August 28, 2014

Historical Examples of vintage

You are as much out of your place as a vintage wine at a harvest supper.
Micah Clarke
Arthur Conan Doyle
The wine-making season the world over is known as the "vintage."
Manual of American Grape-Growing
U. P. Hedrick
No little Baden vintage, no small wine of the Bergstrasse, can impose upon us!
A Day's Ride
Charles James Lever
She was, as far as age was concerned, a little "beyond the vintage."
Debts of Honor
Maurus Jkai
I'll give you a dinner at the Bertolini to-night, and you may have the magnum of any vintage you like.
The Lure of the Mask
Harold MacGrath

British Dictionary definitions for vintage

vintage

noun

the wine obtained from a harvest of grapes, esp in an outstandingly good year, referred to by the year involved, the district, or the vineyard

the harvest from which such a wine is obtained

the harvesting of wine grapes
the season of harvesting these grapes or for making wine

a time of origina car of Edwardian vintage

informal a group of people or objects of the same perioda fashion of last season's vintage

adjective

(of wine) of an outstandingly good year

representative of the best and most typicalvintage Shakespeare

of lasting interest and importance; venerable; classicvintage films

old-fashioned; dated

verb

(tr) to gather (grapes) or make (wine)

Word Origin for vintage

C15: from Old French vendage (influenced by vintener vintner), from Latin vindēmia, from vīnum wine, grape + dēmere to take away (from dē- away + emere to take)

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

Word Origin and History for vintage

mid-15c., "harvest of grapes, yield of wine from a vineyard," from Anglo-French vintage (mid-14c.), from Old French vendage "yield from a vineyard," from Latin vindemia "a gathering of grapes, yield of grapes," from comb. form of vinum "wine" (see wine) + stem of demere "take off" (from de- "from, away from" + emere "to take;" see exempt). Sense shifted to "age or year of a particular wine" (1746), then to a general adjectival sense of "being of an earlier time" (1883). Used of cars since 1928.