English edit

Etymology edit

From adult +‎ -ship.

Noun edit

adultship (uncountable)

  1. The state, condition, character, or conduct of an adult; maturity; adulthood
    • 1833, Gerald Massey, The Natural Genesis:
      But although adultship was then entered upon by the Sherau, and the transformation of the boy into manhood began, the full adultship was not attained until thirty years of age.
    • 1904, Robert Shaw (M. A.), Sketch of the Religions of the World - Page 333:
      The allegoric origins only can explain why Jesus should have been rebegotten as the anointed son at 30 years of age, the time of full adultship, in the Egyptian reckoning, in the likeness of the fatherhood.
    • 1996, Ali Nomad, Cosmic Consciousness:
      [...] but this sense-conscious state is not to be condemned any more than the child is to be condemned because it has not yet grown to adultship.
    • 2007, Julian Hawthorne, The Lock and Key Library:
      He had been married twice, and had three children, a son and a daughter from his first marriage, who had long ago reached adultship, and a nine-year-old daughter from his second marriage.
    • 2013, Ivonne Alexander, Sylvia Dokter, Unplug Your Mind!:
      Thus the matrix attacked the system, and created a holographic insert of adultship being terrible.
    • 2015, McIvor-Tyndall, The Spiritual Function of Sex: Sexual Psychology:
      Even as our physical childhood is a prelude to mental adultship, so old age, our "second childhood," is a prelude to our soul adultship, and the character of our old age period is prophetic of our state in the soul life.