date¹

[deyt] /deɪt/

noun

a particular month, day, and year at which some event happened or will happen:

July 4, 1776 was the date of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

the day of the month:

Is today's date the 7th or the 8th?

an inscription on a writing, coin, etc., that shows the time, or time and place, of writing, casting, delivery, etc.:

a letter bearing the date January 16.

the time or period to which any event or thing belongs; period in general:

at a late date.

the time during which anything lasts; duration:

The pity is that childhood has so short a date.

an appointment for a particular time:

They have a date with their accountant at ten o'clock.

a social appointment, engagement, or occasion arranged beforehand with another person:

to go out on a date on Saturday night.

a person with whom one has such a social appointment or engagement:

Can I bring a date to the party?

an engagement for an entertainer to perform.

10.

dates, the birth and death dates, usually in years, of a person:

Dante's dates are 1265 to 1321.

verb (used without object), dated, dating.

11.

to have or bear a date:

The letter dates from 1873.

12.

to belong to a particular period; have its origin:

That dress dates from the 19th century. The architecture dates as far back as 1830.

13.

to reckon from some point in time:

The custom dates from the days when women wore longer skirts.

14.

to go out socially on dates:

She dated a lot during high school.

verb (used with object), dated, dating.

15.

to mark or furnish with a date:

Please date the check as of today.

16.

to ascertain or fix the period or point in time of; assign a period or point in time to:

The archaeologist dated the ruins as belonging to the early Minoan period.

17.

to show the age of; show to be old-fashioned.

18.

to make a date with; go out on dates with:

He's been dating his best friend's sister.

Idioms

19.

to date, up to the present time; until now:

This is his best book to date.

20.

up to date, in agreement with or inclusive of the latest information; modern:

Bring us up to date on the news.

Origin

1275-1325; (noun) Middle English < Middle French < Late Latin data, noun use of data (feminine of datus, past participle of dare to give), from the phrase data (Romae) written, given (at Rome); (v.) Middle English daten to sign or date a document, derivative of the noun

Related forms

datable, dateable, adjective

datableness, dateableness, noun

dater, noun

undatable, adjective

undateable, adjective

date²

[deyt] /deɪt/

noun

the oblong, fleshy fruit of the date palm, a staple food in northern Africa, Arabia, etc., and an important export.

Origin

1250-1300; Middle English < Anglo-French; Old French dade, date < Medieval Latin datil(l)us (> Old Provençal, Catalan, Spanish datil) < Latin dactylus; see dactyl

Examples from the web for date

For this point must be borne constantly in mind-the money spent to date was spent with a view only to strategy.
So ask a reindeer what time of year it is, and it may be able to give you the date.
The projected completion date has been pushed back for decades.
Her anticipation doubles as the weeks close in on the pub date.
Common guys, the markets have spoken, please make a better effort at remaining relevant and up to date.
Photographs must have been taken within two years of the date of entry.
Don't be surprised if you see one or more pop up here at some later date.
Never mind whether your date is smart or good-looking.
My advice to her: don't date your profs, and protect yourself emotionally.
The technique is widely used to date ancient rocks around the world.

British Dictionary definitions for date

date¹

/deɪt/

noun

a specified day of the month: today's date is October 27

the particular day or year of an event: the date of the Norman Conquest was 1066

(pl) the years of a person's birth and death or of the beginning and end of an event or period

an inscription on a coin, letter, etc, stating when it was made or written

an appointment for a particular time, esp with a person to whom one is sexually or romantically attached: she has a dinner date
the person with whom the appointment is made

the present moment; now (esp in the phrases to date, up to date)

verb

(transitive) to mark (a letter, coin, etc) with the day, month, or year

(transitive) to assign a date of occurrence or creation to

(intransitive; foll by from or back to) to have originated (at a specified time): his decline dates from last summer

10.

(transitive) to reveal the age of: that dress dates her

11.

to make or become old-fashioned: some good films hardly date at all

12.

(informal, mainly US & Canadian)

to be a boyfriend or girlfriend of (someone of the opposite sex)
to accompany (a member of the opposite sex) on a date

Derived Forms

datable, dateable, adjective
dateless, adjective

year

Word Origin

C14: from Old French, from Latin dare to give, as in the phrase epistula data Romae letter handed over at Rome

date²

/deɪt/

noun

the fruit of the date palm, having sweet edible flesh and a single large woody seed

short for date palm

Word Origin

C13: from Old French, from Latin, from Greek daktulos finger

Word Origin and History for date

"time," early 14c., from Old French date (13c.) "date, day; time," from Medieval Latin data, noun use of fem. singular of Latin datus "given," past participle of dare "to give, grant, offer," from PIE root *do- "to give" (cf. Sanskrit dadati "gives," danam "offering, present;" Old Persian dadatuv "let him give," Old Church Slavonic dati "give," dani "tribute;" Latin donum "gift;" Greek didomi, didonai, "to give, offer," doron "gift;" Lithuanian duonis "gift," Old Irish dan "gift, endowment, talent," Welsh dawn "gift").

The Roman convention of closing every article of correspondence by writing "given" and the day and month -- meaning perhaps "given to messenger" -- led to data becoming a term for "the time (and place) stated." (a Roman letter would include something along the lines of datum Romae pridie Kalendas Maias -- "given at Rome on the last day of April."

the fruit, late 13c., from Old French date, from Old Provençal datil, from Latin dactylus, from Greek daktylos "date," originally "finger, toe;" so called because of fancied resemblance between oblong fruit of the date palm and human digits. Possibly from a Semitic source (cf. Hebrew deqel, Aramaic diqla, Arabic daqal "date palm") and assimilated to the Greek word for "finger."

"liaison," 1885, gradually evolving from date (n.1) in its general sense of "appointment;" romantic sense by 1890s. Meaning "person one has a date with" is from 1925.

"to mark (a document) with the date," late 14c., from date (n.1). Meaning "to assign to or indicate a date" (of an event) is from c.1400. Meaning "to mark as old-fashioned" is from 1895. Related: Dated; dating.

"have a romantic liaison;" 1902, from date (n.3). Related: Dated; dating.

Slang definitions & phrases for date

date

noun

An engagement or rendezvous, esp with a member of the other sex (1885+)
A man or woman with whom one has an engagement or rendezvous: He's her date for tonight (1925+)

verb

: How many girls have you dated this week? (1902+)

Related Terms

blind date, cheap date, heavy date

date in Technology

convention, data
A string unique to a time duration of 24 hours between 2 successive midnights defined by the local time zone. The specific representation of a date will depend on which calendar convention is in force; e.g., Gregorian, Islamic, Japanese, Chinese, Hebrew etc. as well as local ordering conventions such as UK: day/month/year, US: month/day/year.
Inputting and outputting dates on computers is greatly complicated by these localisation issues which is why they tend to operate on dates internally in some unified form such as seconds past midnight at the start of the first of January 1970.
Many software and hardware representations of dates allow only two digits for the year, leading to the year 2000 problem.
Unix manual page: date(1), ctime(3).
(1997-07-11)

date in the Bible

the fruit of a species of palm (q.v.), the Phoenix dactilifera. This was a common tree in Palestine (Joel 1:12; Neh. 8:15). Palm branches were carried by the Jews on festive occasions, and especially at the feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:40; Neh. 8:15).

Idioms and Phrases with date

date

In addition to the idiom beginning with

date

also see