🧑 A grown person 🌱 Fully grown 🐾 A mature animal 🔞 Sexual content 🧑‍💼 To act mature

to adult

1 8.2

To do the things grown people have to do, like pay bills

verb
/əˈdʌlt/

Slang

: actuar como adulto

She realized it was necessary to adult and face her financial problems.

Examples

After graduating, he knew it was time to adult and find a job.
And then you are out in the world as an adult doing those things.
Son, don't talk while I'm trying to do important adult things, OK?
Yeah, last little hurrah before I have to start adulting.

God's Not Dead: We The People (2021)
It's time for you to adult and take responsibility for your actions.

Compounds

older adult

11 1.7

A person in the later years of life

adult education

6 3.0

Classes for adults who left school to learn new skills often in the evenings

adult movie

NSFW

3 5.5

A film for adults that shows sexual scenes or explicit content

adult tooth

1 2.3

A tooth that replaces a baby tooth and stays in the mouth

adult-onset diabetes

Archaic

1 3.2

A long-term condition in adults where the body cannot use blood sugar and is often treated with diet or pills

adult body

1 2.4

A fully grown human body after childhood

adult star

NSFW

1 6.7

A person who acts in films that show sex scenes

adult toy

Offensive

1 6.6

A device adults use for sexual pleasure, like a vibrator

adult respiratory distress syndrome

Archaic

1 7.4

A serious illness in which the lungs are damaged and fill with fluid so oxygen cannot reach the blood

adult intelligence

Specialized

5.0

Average thinking ability of adults in a country or region

adult movie industry

NSFW

4.2

A business that makes and sells movies with sexual content

adult-onset diabetes mellitus

Archaic

4.5

A long-term condition in adults that makes the body unable to use sugar well and usually needs diet and pills

How Responsible

to take charge

98 3.5

to adult

Slang

1 8.2

to manage

239 2.3

Surface Forms

adult infinitive

adulted past

adulted past participle

adulting present participle

adults third person singular

Etymology

Adult is a recent, informal use where people turned the word into an action word that means 'do grown-up tasks' or 'behave like a mature person'. A helpful way to remember this is that it simply means doing the things an adult does, like paying bills or making appointments.