Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Relating to or having diminished cognitive function, as when memory is impaired, because of old age.
- adjective Being a disease or condition whose cause is primarily advanced age.
- adjective Geology At the end of an erosion cycle.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In physical geography, exhibiting features of old age in the geographical cycle: said of worn-flown land-forms.
- Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of old age; proceeding from age; especially, pertaining to or proceeding from the weaknesses that usually attend old age: as, senile garrulity; senile petulance.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Of or pertaining to old age; proceeding from, or characteristic of, old age; affected with the infirmities of old age.
- adjective (Med.) a form of gangrene occuring particularly in old people, and caused usually by insufficient blood supply due to degeneration of the walls of the smaller arteries.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Of, or relating to
old age . - adjective
Exhibiting thedeterioration inmind andbody oftenaccompanying old age;doddering .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective mentally or physically infirm with age
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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For John McCain to think that "losing one's bearings" impys "is old and senile" is totally incorrect.
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However, this knowledge can be expected to improve our understanding of the pathogenesis of several clinical disorders such as malformation and errors of development, degenerative changes such as occur in senile dementia, delayed wound healing, muscle dystrophy as well as tumour diseases.
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As a direct consequence we may increase our understanding of many disease states such as developmental malformations, degenerative changes in senile dementia, delayed wound healing and tumour diseases.
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One of them murmured something under his breath; Scotty didn’t need to know any ’aase to understand the word "senile."
Dwellers in the Crucible Margaret Wander Bonanno 1990
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That's why it's important to fund Democratic 507/527s that can go extremely negative on McCain, for example, calling into question his flying recklessness and inability (four wrecks in a day's worth of flying), his Keating Five days, and his "senile" - appearing moments.
Hillary-Backing Reps Say Super-Delegates Should Consider Wright Controversy 2009
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That's why it's important to fund Democratic 507/527s that can go extremely negative on McCain, for example, calling into question his flying recklessness and inability (four wrecks in a day's worth of flying), his Keating Five days, and his "senile" - appearing moments.
Hillary-Backing Reps Say Super-Delegates Should Consider Wright Controversy 2009
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The more I hear from him, the more I think he's just plain senile.
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Being known as a senile old fool or stumping with the dumbest broad on the planet?
Think Progress » The ‘facts’ of the Christmas Day plot are ‘clear’ — to everyone except John McCain. 2010
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Technically, these changes in skin color are called senile or solar lentigines and they're usually brought on by sun exposure.
Out, Out Damn Spots 2007
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Even if he had gone public with his opposition to the War in Iraq, he just would have been called a senile old man by the Bush enabling press.
jpmaher commented on the word senile
In "senile old fool" the word senile for the masses means not old but demented. Syntax is the reason: In senile dementia, the meaning of the second term has "impregnated" the first term. Stoic grammarians (not the stolid guys) actually called the phenomenon "pregnancy". Other useful terms for it: transferred epithet, adventitious association, adequation...
March 11, 2012