middle age
noun/ˌmɪdl ˈeɪdʒ/
/ˌmɪdl ˈeɪdʒ/
[uncountable]- the period of your life when you are neither young nor old, between the ages of about 45 and 60
- a pleasant woman in early/late middle age
Collocations The ages of lifeThe ages of lifeChildhood/youth- be born and raised/bred in Oxford; into a wealthy/middle-class family
- have a happy/an unhappy/a tough childhood
- grow up in a musical family/in an orphanage/on a farm
- be/grow up an only child (= with no brothers or sisters)
- reach/hit/enter/go through adolescence/puberty
- be in your teens/early twenties/mid-twenties/late twenties
- undergo/experience physical/psychological changes
- give in to/succumb to/resist peer pressure
- assert your independence/individuality
- leave school/university/home
- go out to work (at sixteen)
- get/find a job/partner
- be/get engaged/married
- have/get a wife/husband/mortgage/steady job
- settle down and have kids/children/a family
- begin/start/launch/build a career (in politics/science/the music industry)
- prove (to be)/represent/mark/reach a turning point in your life/career
- reach/be well into/settle into middle age
- have/suffer/go through a midlife crisis
- take/consider early retirement
- approach/announce/enjoy your retirement
- have/see/spend time with your grandchildren
- take up/pursue/develop a hobby
- get/receive/draw/collect/live on a pension
- approach/save for/die from old age
- live to a ripe old age
- reach the grand old age of 102/23 (often ironic)
- be/become/be getting/be going senile (often ironic)
- die (peacefully)/pass away in your sleep/after a brief illness
Extra ExamplesTopics Life stagesb2- He mellowed in middle age.
- He settled into comfortable middle age.
- She had her first child well into middle age.
- a bald man approaching middle age
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- early
- late
- approach
- enter
- hit
- …
- spread
- during middle age
- in middle age
- through middle age
- …
- well into middle age
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middle age