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View synonyms for second childhood

second childhood

noun

  1. senility; dotage.


second childhood

noun

  1. dotage; senility (esp in the phrases in his, her, etc, second childhood )
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of second childhood1

First recorded in 1900–05
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Idioms and Phrases

The dotage of old age; also, childlike playfulness in an adult. For example, Grandpa needs full-time care, now that he's in his second childhood , or Since he retired and started learning to fly, he's been in his second childhood . Depending on the context, this term may allude either to such problems of old age as losing one's mental or physical capacities or to delighting in new pleasures in a childlike fashion. [c. 1900]
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Example Sentences

They look like so many grandfathers in their second-childhood.

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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.

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