drinking age
8
2.4
- noun
- /ˈdrɪŋkɪŋ eɪdʒ/
:
edad mínima para beber
- She celebrated her birthday with friends, excited to finally reach the legal drinking age and enjoy a drink in a bar.
- the minimum drinking age
- the legal drinking age
- the drinking age is eighteen
If the age of consent has changed, you better change drinking age, you know, But they don't think about this stuff.
- If the age of consent has changed, you better change drinking age, you know, But they don't think about this stuff.
Examples
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Raising the legal drinking age will not decrease crime but will actually increase it.
Academic text (1992) -
"After they hit legal drinking age, they start looking for commitments and relationships."
Fiction book (1999) -
Since when is the drinking age 21?
-
- No, by the time I was legal drinking age, I had already joined the army.
-
Tell students that they are not limited to a minimum drinking age of 18 or 21.
Academic text (1992) -
There is a drinking age, but that law is taken even less seriously than most.
Fiction book (1999) -
Drinking age is still 21, thank you very much.
-
Alcohol use in rural areas has been identified as a significant problem among those under the legal drinking age.
Academic text (2002) -
Placing the legal drinking age above eighteen has negative economic consequences.
Academic text (1992) -
And conversations about the drinking age often lead to conversations about drunk driving.
Blog text (32)
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a straightforward compositional noun phrase: 'drinking' specifies the activity (consumption of alcohol) and 'age' specifies the relevant year, so together they mean the age at which one may drink. The logic is cross-linguistically common and follows regular English composition patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Drinking age comes from laws that set when the drinking part is allowed at a certain age, so people imagine waiting for a birthday to be old enough to go into a bar. That's why it means the 'youngest age allowed' to buy or drink alcohol.