adulted

1. 1
   verbinformal

   Simple past and past participle of adult.

   He adulted hard this week, filing his taxes a full month early.

   We finally adulted and set up a budget for the household.

   Note

   Two quite different verbs share this past form. The slang one is intransitive: we finally adulted, I've adulted enough for one week. It takes have and no object, so it has no passive. The rarer, nonstandard causative can take an object or turn passive: a child adulted too soon. Context, not spelling, separates them from the rare adjective for "fully grown".

2. 2
   adjectiverare

   Having reached full growth and maturity.

   The adulted form of the insect bears little resemblance to its larval stage.

   Now that we are not only adulted but ancient Christians, I believe the most acceptable sacrifice we can send up to heaven is prayer and praise.

   1655, James Howell, “to Sir Ed. B. Knight”

   Similarmature, full-grown, grown

   Oppositejuvenile, immature

   Note

   An adjective built the plain way, adult plus -ed. It is rare enough to carry an old-fashioned air. James Howell, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ (1655), writes of being "not only adulted but ancient Christians," meaning maturity of faith rather than of body. It compares with more and most. The same spelling now also belongs to the slangy verb form, so in modern prose it can read as a joke.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2