# teen

Pronunciation: say "TEEN" /tiːn/

## Noun

1. A teenager; a person between 13 and 19 years old.
   - Simple: A young person between 13 and 19 years old.
   - _As a teen, she delivered newspapers every morning before school._
   - _The library added a reading room designed just for teens._

## Adjective

2. Having to do with teenagers or the teenage years; teenage.
   - Simple: Made for teenagers or connected with their lives.
   - _The network launched a new teen drama this fall._
   - _Teen fashion tends to change faster than adult styles._

## Noun

3. Grief, sorrow, or trouble; suffering that weighs upon a person. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: Deep sadness or trouble that weighs on a person.
   - _The widow sat in teen by the cold hearth, refusing all comfort._
   - _Much teen befell the household after the harvest failed._
4. Vexation, anger, or hatred. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Strong anger or hate that a person feels toward someone.
   - _The old baron nursed his teen against the family that had wronged him._
   - _Full of teen, she tore the letter to pieces and cast it into the fire._

## Verb

5. To excite or provoke someone; to vex, afflict, or injure. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To make someone angry or upset, or to hurt them.
   - _His mocking words teened her beyond all patience._
   - _They sought to teen their enemy with constant raids on his lands._
6. To become angry or distressed. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To become angry or very upset about something.
7. To close or shut; to enclose a piece of land with a hedge or fence. *(obsolete, Devon)*
   - Simple: To close or shut something, or to put a fence around it.
   - _Each autumn the men teened the meadows against wandering cattle._
   - _He paid two laborers to teen the new pasture with hawthorn._

## Origin

**Meanings 1–2** — A clipping of "teenager."
**Meanings 3–4** — From Middle English tene, from Old English tēona (also tēone), going back to Proto-West Germanic *teun and Proto-Germanic *teuną.
**Meanings 5–6** — From Middle English tenen, from Old English tēonian or tȳnan ("to vex, annoy, provoke"), going back to Proto-West Germanic *tiunijan and Proto-Germanic *tiunijaną.
**Meaning 7** — From Middle English tenen (also tinen), from Old English tȳnan ("to fence, inclose, shut, close"), from Proto-West Germanic *tūnijan and ultimately Proto-Germanic *tūną ("fence, enclosure"). It is a doublet of "tine," is related to "town," and is cognate with Dutch tuinen and German zäunen.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/teen (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).