To adult, or to act like an adult?

[a9436]

Hello,
Lately, I have come across the word adult used as a verb on a few occasions. I always thought this was a noun, and the verb would be, "to be an adult," or "to act like an adult."
Is "to adult" slang, or is there a regional difference at play? I learned British English at school.
Thanks for your insights.

[MrsCatInTheHat]

Slang

[jgraney8]

Hello,
Lately, I have come across the word adult used as a verb on a few occasions. I always thought this was a noun, and the verb would be, "to be an adult," or "to act like an adult."
Is "to adult" slang, or is there a regional difference at play? I learned British English at school.
Thanks for your insights.

Adult as a verb seems to be making an entrance into the language. Here is the link to Merriam-Webster and a note about adult as a verb https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/adulting. "It's not a serious word, but it's increasingly used in published, edited text, and it keeps showing up in ad copy, which is a certain sign of some kind of linguistic arrival."

[a9436]

Thanks for the link. It is always fascinating how language evolves - I just find it hard to keep up sometimes...

[jgraney8]

Thanks for the link. It is always fascinating how language evolves - I just find it hard to keep up sometimes...

I too find it difficult to keep up. But I also find it fascinating.

[kandscreeley]

I recently used "adulting" as a very in my review. It's definitely slang, but I put quotation marks around it, so that everyone would know that I knew it was slang. It's definitely becoming a more common saying. For example, I don't want to adult today.

[fernsmom]

I'm not sure that I've ever heard the phrase "to adult" in a sentence before but it is interesting that the word is being used this way. Saying that, it is kind of amusing that something like this word would become slang when it is really just shortening a word or two. Laziness = slang.

[lisalynn]

It's meme language making its way into regular conversation.

[CinWin]

It is funny how sometimes words that are today's slang are in the dictionary tomorrow! I have never heard of the term "to adult." Very interesting though.

[KathrinS]

Wow, I didn't know this was in the dictionary already. I've come across it a few times, but always in a joke or light-hearted text.