Etimology
From Middle English sesoun, seson (“time of the year”), from Old French seson, saison (“time of sowing, seeding”), from Latin satiō (“act of sowing, planting”) from satum, past participle of serō (“to sow, plant”) from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- (“to sow, plant”). Akin to Old English sāwan (“to sow”), sǣd (“seed”). Displaced native Middle English sele (“season”) (from Old English sǣl (“season, time, occasion”)), Middle English tide (“season, time of year”) (from Old English tīd (“time, period, yeartide, season”)).
noun
season (plural seasons)
Each of the four divisions of a year: spring, summer, autumn (fall) and winter
A part of a year when something particular happens.
A period of the year in which a place is most busy or frequented for business, amusement, etc.
(cricket) The period over which a series of Test matches are played.
(obsolete) That which gives relish; seasoning.
(Canada, US, Australia, broadcasting) A group of episodes of a television or radio program broadcast in regular intervals with a long break between each group, usually with one year between the beginning of each.
(archaic) An extended, undefined period of time.
(video games) The full set of downloadable content for a game, which can be purchased with a season pass.
(video games) A fixed period of time in a massively multiplayer online game in which new content (themes, rules, modes, etc.) becomes available, sometimes replacing earlier content.
Examples
Synonyms: yeartide, yeartime
we saw, in six days' traveling, the several seasons of the year in their beauty and perfection
We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun, / But the wine and the song, / like the seasons, have all gone.
mating season
the rainy season
the football season
Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.
He seldom was seen in the office himself, but occasionally a paragraph in the paper recorded that his yacht had touched at Mentone and that he had been seen at the Monte Carlo tables, or that he was expected in Leicestershire for the season.
O! she is fallenInto a pit of ink, that the wide seaHath drops too few to wash her clean again,And salt too little which may season giveTo her foul-tainted flesh.
You lack the season of all natures, sleep.
Synonym: series
The third season of Friends aired from 1996 to 1997.
Or - is she Erin Gray in the second season of Buck Rogers beautiful?
So it is in a person when a breach hath been made upon his conscience, quiet, perhaps credit, by his lust, in some eruption of actual sin; — carefulness, indignation, desire, fear, revenge are all set on work about it and against it, and lust is quiet for a season, being run down before them; but when the hurry is over and the inquest is past, the thief appears again alive, and is as busy as ever at his work.
A season of great doubt fell upon her soul.
verb
season (third-person singular simple present seasons, present participle seasoning, simple past and past participle seasoned)
(transitive) To habituate, accustom, or inure (someone or something) to a particular use, purpose, or circumstance.
(transitive, by extension) To prepare by drying or hardening, or removal of natural juices.
(intransitive) To become mature; to grow fit for use; to become adapted to a climate.
(intransitive) To become dry and hard, by the escape of the natural juices, or by being penetrated with other substance.
(transitive) To mingle: to moderate, temper, or qualify by admixture.
(obsolete) To impregnate (literally or figuratively).
Examples
to season oneself to a climate
The timber needs to be seasoned.
The wood has seasoned in the sun.
When the male hath once ſeaſoned the female, he neuer after toucheth her.[When the male hath once seasoned the female, he never after toucheth her.]
[When the male hath once seasoned the female, he never after toucheth her.]
For this prince […] would not ſuffer the Buls to come unto the Kine and ſeaſon them, before they were both foure yeares old.
If you had seasoned me with that philosophy, which formeth the mind to ratiocination, and insensibly accustoms it to be satisfied with nothing but solid reasons, if you had given me those excellent precepts and doctrines, which raise the foul above the assaults of fortune, and reduce her to an unshakeable and always equal temper, and permit her not to be lifted up b prosperity, nor debased by adversity, if you had taken care to give me the knowledge of what we are, and what are the first principles of things, and had assisted me in forming in my mind a fit idea of the greatness of the universe, and of the admirable order and motion of the parts thereof, if, I say, you had instilled into me this kind of philosophy, I should think myself incomparably more obliged to you than Alexander was to his Aristotle
In minds, not seasoned and impregnated with the due apprehension of those ends, that conduce to ease and security, there is usually a tempestuous discontent, that raises unruly ferments; an unkind gale, by whose resistless powers, the port is overreached.
Related words
synonyms
(make fit for any use by time or habit): wont; see also Thesaurus:accustom
(prepare by drying): desiccate, dehydrate, exiccate, fordry
(become mature): age, grow up, mature; see also Thesaurus:to age
(become dry and hard): desiccate, dry out, dry up, fordry, shrivel up
(mingle): admix, alloy, intermingle; see also Thesaurus:mix
(impregnate): inseminate, fertilize, seed
Etimology
From French assaisonner.
verb
season (third-person singular simple present seasons, present participle seasoning, simple past and past participle seasoned)
(transitive) To flavour food with spices, herbs or salt.
Related words
related terms
seasoning