| 释义 |
tween-age, n. and a. colloq. (chiefly N. Amer.).
Brit. |ˈtwiːneɪdʒ|, U.S. |ˈtwiˌneɪdʒ|
Forms: 19– tween age, 19– 'tween-age, 19– tweenage
[Alteration of teenage n.2 after 'tween prep. Compare earlier tweenie n. and later tween n.2]
A. n. A person who is nearly, or has only just become, a teenager. Also (with the): such people as a class. Cf. tween n.2 Now rare.
1938Sun (Baltimore) 31 Aug. 9 (advt.) Tongues [i.e., on shoes] are the talk of the ‘tween-age’. 1945N.Y. Times 6 Mar. 19/3 Looking at the future in terms of two decades, a youth is more important than the veteran; but now he is a ‘tween age’, too old to cry, too young to fight. 1970F. T. Carter 'Tween-age Ambassadors v. 87 ‘What's a 'tween-age?’.. ‘That's a person about..eleven or twelve years old. Somebody who is not a teenager yet, but a little old to be a child.’
B. adj. Of, relating to, or intended for tweenagers.
1951N.Y. Times 9 Sept. 88 (advt.) Tween Age shoes. 1956Amer. Jrnl. Psychiatry 112751/1 What percentage of the tween-age group is involved? 1970F. T. Carter 'Tween-age Ambassadors v. 87 I'd say you were a very good ambassador, Earl... A tween-age ambassador! 1989St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 11 Jan. (You Mag.) 5 Pre-adolescence, or the tween-age years, as I call them, begins around age 11 and lasts through age 13. 1999Maclean's (Electronic ed.) 22 Mar. The mop-topped Carter played Toronto in February, drawing a seething mass of tweenage music lovers laden with cash. |