What is "nineties"

nineties \nineties\ n. pl.

1. The decade from 1890 to 1899; as, the gay nineties.

2. The decade from 1990 to 1999; as, they spent a ton of money to solve the Y2K bug in the nineties.

3. The time of life between ages 90 and 100.

   Syn: mid-nineties.

1857 as the years of someone's life between 90 and 99; from 1848 as the tenth decade of years in a given century; 1849 with reference to Fahrenheit temperature. See ninety.\n\nMany still live who remember those days; if the old men cannot tell you the exact date, they will say: 'It were in the nineties;' (etc.)

["Chambers's Journal," Nov. 1, 1856]

\nIn Britain, the naughty nineties was a popular name 1920s-30s for the 1890s, based on the notion of a relaxing of morality and mood in contrast to earlier Victorian times. In U.S., gay nineties in reference to the same decade is attested from 1927, and was the title of a regular nostalgia feature in "Life" magazine about that time.\n\nThe long, dreary blue-law Sunday afternoons were periods of the Nineties which no amount of rosy retrospect will ever be able to recall as gay, especially to a normal healthy boy to whom all activities were taboo except G. A. Henty and the bound volumes of Leslie's Weekly of the Civil War.

[Life, Sept. 1, 1927]

alt. 1 (plural of ninety English) 2 The decade of the 1890s, 1990s, etc. n. 1 (plural of ninety English) 2 The decade of the 1890s, 1990s, etc.

1. n. the decade from 1890 to 1899 [syn: 1890s]

2. the decade from 1990 to 1999 [syn: 1990s]

3. the time of life between 90 and 100 [syn: mid-nineties]