Season

Pronunciation

• enPR: sēʹzÉ™n IPA: /ˈsizÉ™n/
• Rhymes: -iːzÉ™n

Origin

From Middle English sesoun, seson ("time of the year"), from Old French seson, seison ("time of sowing, seeding"), from Latin satiōnem, accusative of satiō ("act of sowing, planting") from satum, past participle of serere ("to sow, plant") from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- ("to sow, plant"). Akin to Old English sāwan ("to sow"), Old English 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")).

Full definition of season

Noun

1. Each of the four divisions of a year: spring, summer, autumn and winter; yeartide.
• Addisonthe several seasons of the year in their beauty
2. A part of a year when something particular happens: mating season, rainy season, football season.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 1, 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.
3. (obsolete) That which gives relish; seasoning.
• 1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing,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.
• 1605, Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Macbeth, III, 4You lack the season of all natures, sleep.
4. (cricket) The period over which a series of Test matches are played.
5. (North America) 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.The third season of Friends aired from 1996 to 1997.
6. (obsolete) An extended, undefined period of time.
• 1656, John Owen (theologian), The Mortification of SinSo 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.

Usage notes

In British English, a year-long group of episodes is called a series, whereas in North American English the word "series" is a synonym of "program" or "show".

Synonyms

• yeartide
• yeartime

Derived terms

Verb

1. (transitive) To flavour food with spices, herbs or salt.
2. (transitive) To make fit for any use by time or habit; to habituate; to accustom; to inure; to ripen; to mature; as, to season one to a climate.
3. (transitive) Hence, to prepare by drying or hardening, or removal of natural juices; as, to season timber.
4. (intransitive) To become mature; to grow fit for use; to become adapted to a climate.
5. (intransitive) To become dry and hard, by the escape of the natural juices, or by being penetrated with other substance; as, timber seasons in the sun.
6. (obsolete) To copulate with; to impregnate.

Anagrams

• naoses