From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishadultad‧ult1 /ˈædʌlt, əˈdʌlt/ ●●● S2 W2 AWL noun [countable] 1 ADULTa fully-grown person, or one who is considered to be legally responsible for their actions → child Some children find it difficult to talk to adults.2 ADULTa fully-grown animal The adults have white bodies and grey backs.
Examples from the Corpus
adult• Ann became a Catholic as an adult and entered the book trade working at a Catholic bookshop in Exeter.• Prosecutors are seeking to have the 15-year-old defendant tried as an adult.• But when I became an adult, I began to see the importance of those abstract principles in a personal way.• Children cannot be admitted to the museum unless they are accompanied by an adult.• Children related to him so much because they saw in him an adult who behaved in the way that they did.• Being responsible for my sons turned me into an adult as had nothing else in the forty years before.• Since I left school, my parents have started to treat me like an adult.• An adult has a vast array of comparatively complex schemata that permit a great number of differentiations.• The cost of the trip is $59 for adults and $30 for children.• Choice, in almost all its facets, is diminished in the life of an illiterate adult.• The adult replies: Oh, come on.adultadult2 ●●● W3 AWL adjective 1 [only before noun]ADULT fully grown or developed an adult lion the adult population He lived most of his adult life in Scotland.2 ADULTtypical of an adult’s behaviour or of the things adults do dealing with problems in an adult way That wasn’t very adult of you.3 SEX/HAVE SEX WITH[only before noun] adult films, magazines etc are about sex or related to sex The film is rated R for language and adult themes.Examples from the Corpus
adult• The disease can be very serious in adult animals.• Soon the skin of the pupa splits open, and the fully-formed adult butterfly emerges.• Some former course members have since obtained fulltime teaching posts in adult education.• The government has announced plans to increase spending on adult education.• Ten adult elephants - each with a number painted on it - were successfully moved and released in this fashion.• R: Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.• In his adult life all these painful thoughts had been buried but still caused a great deal of unhappiness.• Adult magazines in shops must be kept where children cannot see them.• It was thought that the skull was too small and light to belong to an adult male.• Over 30% of the adult population were illiterate.• Forman gives us a version of Flynt as an impish, natural man, the Bart Simpson of the adult publishing world.• The book is intended for adult readers.• But escalation is not usually associated with adult sexuality.• From what I saw, the repression all seemed to originate externally, from parents and the rest of adult society.• You need to deal with your problems in an adult way.• They attempt to adopt adult word forms and use them with increasing consistency from one occasion to the next.adult life• Being overweight, when young or in your adult life. 3.• Feargal's censure, Phena's bitterness - a hell of a burden to carry all your adult life.• Marriage, though not the social imperative it once was, still stands for a major rite of passage into adult life.• Louis, Ray has spent most of his adult life behind bars.• A native of Richmond, he lived much of his adult life bouncing around the West Coast via train or sometimes car.• Having to face schoolmates calling Dad a drunk makes the sticks and stones of adult life easier to deflect.• He has spent most of his adult life in the States.• For the first time in her adult life, Polly went to bed without bathing or cleaning her teeth.• In adult life, similar images are formed.Origin adult2 (1500-1600) Latin past participle of adolescere “to grow up” 