teen

See also: -teen and teen-

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: tēn, IPA^(key): /tiːn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːn

Etymology 1

Clipping of teenager. For more synonyms see at Thesaurus:teenager.

Noun

teen (plural teens)

1. Synonym of teenager: a person between 13 and 19 years old.

   In the safety alert, the NTSB educates parents on the risks and outlines what they can do to protect their teens against marijuana-impaired driving.

   NTSB, NTSB Issues Safety Alert on Dangers of Marijuana for Teen Drivers, 18 July 2024

   • 2003, James Woycke, Au Naturel: The History of Nudism in Canada, FCN, →ISBN, page 262:

     Europeans have more success with generational outreach, but they start with younger age groups and provide a greater variety of all-youth activities. Rather than giving up hope, the YCN redirected its focus from teens to twens, particularly  ...

   • 2024, NTSB, Intersection Crash Between Passenger Car and Combination Vehicle, Tishomingo, Oklahoma, March 22, 2022:

     We found that teen drivers and the public largely misunderstand the legal status of cannabis use and do not fully recognize the risks of cannabis-impaired driving.

Derived terms

• alternateen
• clean teen
• preteen
• stepteen
• teendom
• teen drama
• teenhood
• teenie
• teen-nap

 

Adjective

teen (not comparable)

1. Of or having to do with teenagers; teenage

   teen fashion

Etymology 2

From Middle English tene, from Old English tēona, tēone, *tēon, from Proto-Germanic *teuną.

Noun

teen (plural teens)

1. (archaic) Grief; sorrow; trouble.

   Synonyms: ill-fortune, harm, suffering

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     In which the birds song many a lovely lay / Of Gods high praise, and of their loves sweet teene, / As it an earthly Paradize had beene […]

   • 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, X, xxv:

     The Soldan changed hue for grief and teen, / On that sad book his shame and loss he lear'd.

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 2:

     Miranda: O my heart bleedes / To thinke oth' teene that I haue turn'd you to, / Which is from my remembrance, […]

   • 1866, Algernon Swinburne, Faustine:

     Your soul forgot her joys, forgot / Her times of teen; / Yea, this life likewise will you not / Forget

   • 1867, Matthew Arnold, A Southern Night:

     With public toil and private teen Thou sank'st alone.

   • 1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night, XXI:

     That City's sombre Patroness and Queen, / In bronze sublimity she gazes forth / Over her Capital of teen and threne

2. (archaic or obsolete) Vexation; anger; hate.

Translations

grief, sorrow, suffering

• Bulgarian: мъка (bg) f (mǎka), скръб (bg) f (skrǎb)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 痛苦 (tung³ fu²)

• Russian: бе́дствие (ru) n (bédstvije), го́ре (ru) n (góre), несча́стье (ru) n (nesčástʹje)

Etymology 3

From Middle English tenen, from Old English tēonian, tȳnan (“to vex, annoy, provoke”), from Proto-West Germanic *tiunijan, from Proto-Germanic *tiunijaną.

Verb

teen (third-person singular simple present teens, present participle teening, simple past and past participle teened)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To excite; to provoke; to vex; to afflict; to injure.
2. (reflexive, obsolete) To become angry or distressed.
   • c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, section II:

     Þenne tened hym theologye · whan he þis tale herde

Etymology 4

From Middle English tenen, tinen, from Old English tȳnan (“to fence, inclose, shut, close”), from Proto-West Germanic *tūnijan, from Proto-West Germanic *tūn, from Proto-Germanic *tūną (“fence, enclosure”). Doublet of tine. Cognate with Dutch tuinen, German zäunen. Related to English town.

Verb

teen (third-person singular simple present teens, present participle teening, simple past and past participle teened)

1. (transitive, obsolete or dialectal, Devon) To close, to shut; to enclose, to hedge or fence in.
   • 1874 (1879), Waugh, Chim. Corner, 75:

     Hie tho' off […] or th' dur may be teen'd.

   • 1919, Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, page 75:

     It is still heard in Devon , especially by older dialect speakers, in such expressions as “I'an't a-teen'd my eyes all night”; “Teen the door, will ' e?”

   • 1924, Eden Phillpotts, Redcliff, page 244:

     She whimpered and whined about it till, in self-defence, I rose up and teened the candle and got into my breeches.

References

• “teen”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

See also

• teen patti

Anagrams

• -tene, EENT, NEET, neet

Afrikaans

Alternative forms

• teun (archaic)

Etymology

From Dutch tegen, from Middle Dutch tegen, tjegen, from te jegen, the latter from Old Dutch gegin, from Proto-Germanic *gagin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɪən/

• Audio:

  (file)

Preposition

teen

1. against

Basque

Noun

teen

1. genitive plural of te

Danish

Noun

teen c

1. definite singular of te

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈteːn/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: teen
• Rhymes: -eːn

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch têe, from Old Dutch *tēa, from Proto-Germanic *taihwǭ. The modern form was originally a plural (retained in van top tot teen), which was reanalysed as a singular. Compare schoen where the same has happened, or raaf which went the opposite way.

Noun

teen m (plural tenen, diminutive teentje n)

1. toe
2. clove (of garlic)

Alternative forms

• toon (dated, dialectal)

Derived terms

• drieteenmeeuw
• drieteenstrandloper
• grote teen
• lange tenen
• teengewricht
• teennagel
• teenschimmel
• teenslipper
• teensok
• tenenkrommend
• tenenkrullend
• van top tot teen

 

Descendants

• Afrikaans: toon
• Negerhollands: tee, tetsi, tetśi
• → Papiamentu: tenchi (from the diminutive)

Etymology 2

From Middle Dutch tene, teene, from Old Dutch *tein, *tēn, from Proto-Germanic *tainaz.

Noun

teen f or n (plural tenen, diminutive teentje n)

1. twig, thin branch

   Synonym: twijg

2. (collective) a bundle of twigs

Alternative forms

• tien (archaic)

Derived terms

• wilgenteen

Anagrams

• eten, neet

Dyula

Alternative forms

• ten

Noun

teen

1. oil palm, Elaeis guineensis
2. the fruit of the palm tree

Estonian

Verb

teen

1. first-person singular present indicative of tegema

Finnish

Etymology 1

Verb

teen

1. first-person singular present indicative of tehdä

Etymology 2

Noun

teen

1. genitive singular of tee

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

teen m

1. definite singular of te

Anagrams

• ente, eten, neet, -enet

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

teen m

1. definite singular of te

Spanish

Adjective

teen m or f (masculine and feminine plural teens)

1. teen

Tetum

Etymology

From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *taqi, compare Malay tahi.

Noun

teen

1. excrement, faeces, feces

Yucatec Maya

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /tèːn/

Pronoun

teen

1. I (first-person singular pronoun)