(~er, ~est)
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
A ~ person, animal, or plant has not lived or existed for very long and is not yet mature.
In Scotland, ~ people can marry at 16...
...a field of ~ barley...
He played with his ~er brother.
? old
ADJ
•
The ~ are people who are ~.
The association is advising pregnant women, the very ~ and the elderly to avoid such foods.
N-PLURAL: the N
2.
You use ~ to describe a time when a person or thing was ~.
In her ~er days my mother had been a successful fashionwear saleswoman.
ADJ: ADJ n
3.
Someone who is ~ in appearance or behaviour looks or behaves as if they are ~.
I was twenty-three, I suppose, and ~ for my age...
ADJ
4.
The ~ of an animal are its babies.
The hen may not be able to feed its ~.
N-PLURAL