season

plural seasons

1. Each of the divisions of a year based on the prevailing weather: spring, summer, autumn (fall) and winter; or the rainy (monsoon) and dry season, depending on the climate.

   we saw, in six days' traveling, the several seasons of the year in their beauty and perfection

   c. 1705, Joseph Addison, Remarks on several parts of Italy, &c. in the years 1701, 1702, 1703

   1 more example

   We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun, / But the wine and the song, / like the seasons, have all gone.

   1973, “Seasons in the Sun”, Jaques Brel (original version), Rod McKuen (lyrics), performed by Terry Jacks

   Synonyms: yeartide, yeartime

2. A period of the year when something particular happens.

   mating season

   5 more examples

   the football season

   the holiday 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.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

   Since a state ban was lifted in 1984, hunters may shoot one swan per season. A permit system limited last season's take to 6,000.

   1987 October, Charles E. Cobb, Jr., “North Carolina's Outer Banks”, in National Geographic, volume 172, number 4, page 507

   Curry, a four-time NBA champion with the Warriors, played for the Wildcats for three seasons between 2006 and 2009, where he was twice named conference player of the year. […] Curry has been named NBA regular season MVP twice and is an 11-time All Star.

   2025 March 11, Matias Grez, “Steph Curry accepts assistant general manager role at alma mater Davidson College”, in CNN

   Synonyms: time

3. A period of the year in which a place is most busy or frequented for business, amusement, etc.

   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.

   1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019

4. metonymicallypars pro totoA year, but with emphasis on the most important part of the year in context, such as the months when plants or animals grow and reproduce.

   This invasive species reproduces so rapidly that it can completely take over an area in just a couple seasons.

5. ball gamesThe period over which a series of Test matches are played.
6. obsoleteThat which gives relish; seasoning.

   You lack the season of all natures, sleep.

   c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]

   1 more example

   O! she is fallen Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea Hath drops too few to wash her clean again, And salt too little which may season give To her foul-tainted flesh.

   1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]

7. AustraliaCanadaUSbroadcastingA 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.

   The third season of Robot Chicken aired from 2007 to 2008.

   1 more example

   Or - is she Erin Gray in the second season of Buck Rogers beautiful?

   1998 February 11, “Tom's Rhinoplasty”, in South Park, season 1, episode 11

   Synonyms: series

8. archaicAn extended, undefined period of time.

   A season of great doubt fell upon her soul.

   1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide

   2 more examples

   It was the Winter wilde. While the Heav’n-born-childe, All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies: Nature in aw to him Had doff't her gawdy trim, With her great Maſter ſo to ſympathize: It was no ſeaſon then for her To wanton with the Sun her luſty Paramour.

   1646 (indicated as 1645), John Milton, “On the Morning of Christs Nativity”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], →OCLC, page 2

   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.

   1656, John Owen, The Mortification of Sin

9. Evangelical ChristianityA period of time in one’s life characterized by a particular emotion of situation.

   a season of faithlessness

10. video gamesThe full set of downloadable content for a game, which can be purchased with a season pass.
11. video gamesA fixed period of time in a massively multiplayer online game in which new content (themes, rules, modes, etc.) becomes available, sometimes replacing earlier content.

present singular third person seasons · participle present seasoning · participle past seasoned · past seasoned

1. transitiveTo habituate, accustom, or inure (someone or something) to a particular use, purpose, or circumstance.

   to season oneself to a climate

2. broadlytransitiveTo prepare by drying or hardening, or removal of natural juices.

   The timber needs to be seasoned.

   Synonyms: desiccate, dehydrate, exiccate, fordry

3. intransitiveTo become mature; to grow fit for use; to become adapted to a climate.

   Synonyms: wont, age

4. intransitiveTo become dry and hard, by the escape of the natural juices, or by being penetrated with other substance.

   The wood has seasoned in the sun.

   Synonyms: desiccate, dry out, dry up, fordry, shrivel up

5. transitiveTo mingle: to moderate, temper, or qualify by admixture.

   Synonyms: admix

6. obsoleteTo impregnate (literally or figuratively).

   When the male hath once ſeaſoned the female, he neuer after toucheth her.

   1589, Richard Hakluyt, chapter 22, in The principall navigations, voiages and discoveries of the English nation, part 1, London, page 93

   3 more examples

   For this prince[…]would not ſuffer the Buls to come unto the Kine and ſeaſon them, before they were both foure yeares old.

   1601, Philemon Holland, The Historie of the World, book 8, London, translation of Naturalis Historia by Pliny the Elder, chapter 45, page 224

   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

   1745, A Collection of Voyages and Travels, page 150

   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.

   1763, Edmund Burton, Antient Characters deduced from Classical Remains, page 82

   Synonyms: inseminate, fertilize, seed

present singular third person seasons · participle present seasoning · participle past seasoned · past seasoned

1. transitiveTo flavour food with spices, herbs or salt.

   Lightly season the cod with salt and pepper and nestle the fish onto the pan.

   2022, Melissa Clark, Dinner in One, →ISBN, page 37