season

noun

1. Each of the divisions of a year based on the prevailing weather: spring, summer, autumn (fall) and winter; or the rainy (monsoon) and dry season, depending on the climate.

   “we saw, in six days' traveling, the several seasons of the year in their beauty and perfection”

   “We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun, / But the wine and the song, / like the seasons, have all gone.”

2. A period of the year when something particular happens.

   “mating season”

   “the football season”

   “the holiday season”

   “Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.”

   “Curry, a four-time NBA champion with the Warriors, played for the Wildcats for three seasons between 2006 and 2009, where he was twice named conference player of the year. […] Curry has been named NBA regular season MVP twice and is an 11-time All Star.”

3. A period of the year in which a place is most busy or frequented for business, amusement, etc.

   “He seldom was seen in the office himself, but occasionally a paragraph in the paper recorded that his yacht had touched at Mentone and that he had been seen at the Monte Carlo tables, or that he was expected in Leicestershire for the season.”

4. (metonymically)A year, but with emphasis on the most important part of the year in context, such as the months when plants or animals grow and reproduce.

   “This invasive species reproduces so rapidly that it can completely take over an area in just a couple seasons.”

5. The period over which a series of Test matches are played.
6. (obsolete)That which gives relish; seasoning.

   “O! she is fallen Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea Hath drops too few to wash her clean again, And salt too little which may season give To her foul-tainted flesh.”

   “You lack the season of all natures, sleep.”

7. (Australia, Canada, US)A group of episodes of a television or radio program broadcast in regular intervals with a long break between each group, usually with one year between the beginning of each.

   “The third season of Robot Chicken aired from 2007 to 2008.”

   “Or - is she Erin Gray in the second season of Buck Rogers beautiful?”

8. (archaic)An extended, undefined period of time.

   “It was the Winter wilde. While the Heav’n-born-childe, All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies: Nature in aw to him Had doff't her gawdy trim, With her great Maſter ſo to ſympathize: It was no ſeaſon then for her To wanton with the Sun her luſty Paramour.”

   “So it is in a person when a breach hath been made upon his conscience, quiet, perhaps credit, by his lust, in some eruption of actual sin; — carefulness, indignation, desire, fear, revenge are all set on work about it and against it, and lust is quiet for a season, being run down before them; but when the hurry is over and the inquest is past, the thief appears again alive, and is as busy as ever at his work.”

   “A season of great doubt fell upon her soul.”

9. A period of time in one’s life characterized by a particular emotion of situation.

   “a season of faithlessness”

10. The full set of downloadable content for a game, which can be purchased with a season pass.
11. A fixed period of time in a massively multiplayer online game in which new content (themes, rules, modes, etc.) becomes available, sometimes replacing earlier content.

verb

1. (transitive)To habituate, accustom, or inure (someone or something) to a particular use, purpose, or circumstance.

   “to season oneself to a climate”

2. (broadly, transitive)To prepare by drying or hardening, or removal of natural juices.

   “The timber needs to be seasoned.”

3. (intransitive)To become mature; to grow fit for use; to become adapted to a climate.
4. (intransitive)To become dry and hard, by the escape of the natural juices, or by being penetrated with other substance.

   “The wood has seasoned in the sun.”

5. (transitive)To mingle: to moderate, temper, or qualify by admixture.
6. (obsolete)To impregnate (literally or figuratively).

   “When the male hath once ſeaſoned the female, he neuer after toucheth her.”

   “For this prince[…]would not ſuffer the Buls to come unto the Kine and ſeaſon them, before they were both foure yeares old.”

   “In minds, not seasoned and impregnated with the due apprehension of those ends, that conduce to ease and security, there is usually a tempestuous discontent, that raises unruly ferments; an unkind gale, by whose resistless powers, the port is overreached.”

7. (transitive)To flavour food with spices, herbs or salt.