pubescent
Americanadjective
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arriving or arrived at puberty.
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Botany, Zoology. covered with down or fine short hair.
adjective
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arriving or having arrived at puberty
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(of certain plants and animals or their parts) covered with a layer of fine short hairs or down
Other Word Forms
- pubescence noun
- pubescency noun
- subpubescent adjective
Etymology
Origin of pubescent
1640–50; < Latin pūbēscent- (stem of pūbēscēns ), present participle of pūbēscere to attain puberty, reach puberty, become hairy or downy. See pubes 1, -escent
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Yes, there’s a long tradition of teasing boys for trying to grow beards beyond their pubescent abilities.
From Slate • Jan. 31, 2024
To the moody strains of Sheik’s alt-rock score, the vise of adolescence is captured in a story about pubescent youths rebelling against the warping will of adult hypocrisy and repression.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 1, 2023
All these form an enormous playground where monumental things happen at inopportune times, each song a zoetrope world built for consoling and commiserating with the pains of being pubescent.
From Washington Post • Jan. 17, 2023
As the furor over "Turning Red" reveals, periods – especially the first ones that a pubescent child experiences – are not widely embraced as acceptable on our screens.
From Salon • Mar. 26, 2022
“My pubescent nemesis. What a promising day this appears to be. I am apparently to be run over by a streetcar and robbed simultaneously, thereby setting a Paradise record. Get away, you depraved urchin.”
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
