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-West Germanic *teun, 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

Pronunciation

This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some! Particularly: “Hearing this in audio, it sounds like it has stød between the two "e"s?”

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-West Germanic *taihā, 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 and ui 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-West Germanic *tain, 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

Pronunciation

This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some!

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)