dating

v. write a date on; apply a date to; go out with a person of the opposite sex

Dating is any social activity performed as a pair or even a group with the aim of each assessing the other's suitability as their partner in a intimate relationship or as a spouse. The word refers to the act of agreeing on a time and "date" when a pair can meet and engage in some social activity.In many cultural traditions, dates are arranged by a third party, who may be a family member, an acquaintance, or a dedicated matchmaker. Recently matchmaking services have become popular. Although dating rules in Western popular culture have become more relaxed during the 20th century, there is considerable variation between individuals' values. For example, when the activity costs money, it has traditionally been the man's role to pay; in recent times the practice of "going Dutch" (splitting the expenses) has emerged. Traditional dating activities include sharing entertainment or a meal. In general, a person may date many different partners during the same time period in order to have the best chance of finding their most suitable available mate.
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Noun
1. use of chemical analysis to estimate the age of geological specimens
(synonym) geological dating
(hypernym) chemical analysis, qualitative analysis
(hyponym) potassium-argon dating
(derivation) date

Noun
1. the specified day of the month; "what is the date today?"
(synonym) day of the month
(hypernym) day, twenty-four hours, solar day, mean solar day
(hyponym) maturity, maturity date, due date
2. a particular day specified as the time something will happen; "the date of the election is set by law"
(hypernym) day, twenty-four hours, solar day, mean solar day
(hyponym) rain date
3. a meeting arranged in advance; "she asked how to avoid kissing at the end of a date"
(synonym) appointment, engagement
(hypernym) meeting, get together
(hyponym) blind date
(member-meronym) escort
(derivation) go steady, go out, see
4. a particular but unspecified point in time; "they hoped to get together at an early date"
(hypernym) point, point in time
5. the present; "they are up to date"; "we haven't heard from them to date"
(hypernym) present, nowadays
6. a participant in a date; "his date never stopped talking"
(synonym) escort
(hypernym) companion, comrade, fellow, familiar, associate
(hyponym) blind date
(member-holonym) appointment, engagement
(derivation) go steady, go out, see
7. the particular day, month, or year (usually according to the Gregorian calendar) that an event occurred; "he tried to memorizes all the dates for his history class"
(hypernym) calendar day, civil day
(hyponym) epoch, date of reference
8. sweet edible fruit of the date palm with a single long woody seed
(hypernym) edible fruit
(part-holonym) date palm, Phoenix dactylifera
Verb
1. go on a date with; "Tonight she is dating a former high school sweetheart"
(hypernym) go out
(hyponym) double-date
(verb-group) go steady, go out, see
(derivation) escort
2. stamp with a date; "The package is dated November 24"
(synonym) date stamp
3. assign a date to; determine the (probable) date of; "Scientists often cannot date precisely archeological or prehistorical findings"
(hypernym) determine, set
(hyponym) chronologize, chronologise
4. date regularly; have a steady relationship with; "Did you know that she is seeing an older man?"; "He is dating his former wife again!"
(synonym) go steady, go out, see
(hypernym) consort, associate, affiliate, assort
(derivation) escort
5. provide with a dateline; mark with a date; "She wrote the letter on Monday but she dated it Saturday so as not to reveal that she procrastinated"
(hypernym) supply, provide, render, furnish
(hyponym) dateline, datemark, date-mark

(p. pr. & vb. n.)
of Date
  

<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)