Meaning & use
aging out
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“aging out” is a form of “age out”.
Meanings
noununcountableAmerican
The point at which a young person becomes too old for a service, program or system of care and loses the support it provides.
Grammar: Often used as a noun for the process: aging out of foster care.
Patterns
- aging out of something
Aging out of foster care at eighteen leaves many young adults without housing.
The charity runs workshops for teens facing aging out of the system.
Aging out can be a shock when families have relied on the benefit for years.
verbintransitiveAmerican
Becoming too old to qualify for a program, team, group or service, so that you must leave it.
Grammar: This is the -ing form of the phrasal verb age out; it is followed by of: aging out of the league.
Patterns
- aging out of something
She is aging out of the youth soccer league this spring.
Many teenagers are aging out of the children's health plan next year.
He worries that he is aging out of the competition's youngest category.
Word forms
| base form | age out |
|---|---|
| third person singular | ages out |
| past tense | aged out |
| past participle | aged out |
Common combinations
- aging out of foster care
- The program helps teens who are aging out of foster care find apartments.
- aging out of the system
- Aging out of the system means losing access to many services.
- youth aging out
- Funding is needed for youth aging out of residential care.
- risk aging out
- Players on the junior team risk aging out at nineteen.
- aging out of eligibility
- Aging out of eligibility for the scholarship forced her to take a job.
Synonyms and how they differ
- outgrowing
- Outgrowing is looser and can describe interests or clothes as well as programs, while aging out is tied to a fixed age rule.
- exiting
- Exiting simply means leaving and says nothing about age, so it is less exact.
- becoming ineligible
- This is a plain, more formal way to say it, and does not suggest age as strongly.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: aging out or aging up?
aging out vs aging up
Aging up is used for moving to an older category, while aging out means leaving the program entirely.
Practice
At eighteen, Marcus will be ___ the foster care system and will lose the support it gives him.
Choose one answer.
Aging out of describes becoming too old for a program and leaving it. The other options do not express losing eligibility because of age.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “aging out”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.