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old

UK/əʊld/ US/ɒʊɫd/ very common informal slang uk
adjective (9) noun (1)

adjective

1.

(used especially of persons) having lived for a relatively long time or attained a specific age; especially not young; often used as a combining form to indicate an age as specified as in `a week-old baby''

  • “an old man”
Antonyms
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2.

of long duration; not new

  • “old tradition”
  • “old house”
  • “old wine”
  • “old country”
  • “old friendships”
  • “old money”
Antonyms
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3.

of an earlier time

  • “his old classmates”
Similar
4.

(used for emphasis) very familiar

  • “good old boy”
  • “same old story”
Similar
5.

lacking originality or spontaneity; no longer new

  • “moth-eaten theories about race”
Synonyms
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6.

just preceding something else in time or order

  • “the previous owner”
  • “my old house was larger”
Synonyms
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7.

of a very early stage in development

  • “Old English is also called Anglo Saxon”
  • “Old High German is High German from the middle of the 9th to the end of the 11th century”
Similar
8.

old in experience

  • “an old offender”
  • “the older soldiers”
Synonyms
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9.

used informally especially for emphasis

  • “a real honest-to-god live cowboy”
  • “had us a high old time”
  • “went upriver to look at a sure-enough fish wheel”
Synonyms
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noun

1.

past times (especially in the phrase `in days of old'')

Origin

Inherited from Middle English old, oold, from Old English ald, eald (“old, aged, ancient, antique, primeval”), from Proto-West Germanic *ald, from Proto-Germanic *aldaz (“grown-up”), originally a participle form, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eltós (“grown, tall, big”). Cognates Cognate with Scots aald, auld (“old”), Yola yola, yolaw, yold, yole (“old”), North Frisian ool, ual, uuil, uul, üülj (“old”), Saterland Frisian oold (“old”), West Frisian âld (“old”), Alemannic German altu, oalt, oalts, olt, àltà (“old”), Bavarian oid (“old”), Central Franconian alt, aod, auw, oot (“old”), Cimbrian and German alt (“old”), Dutch oud (“old”), German Low German old, oolt (“old”), Luxembourgish al (“old”), Mòcheno òlt (“old”), Vilamovian aołd (“old”), Yiddish אַלט (alt, “old”), Danish ældre (“elderly”), Faroese eldri (“elder, older”), Icelandic aldinn (“old”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk eldre (“elderly”), Swedish äldre (“elderly”), Crimean Gothic alt (“old”), Gothic 𐌰𐌻𐌸𐌴𐌹𐍃 (alþeis, “old”), Latin altus (“high, tall, grown big, lofty”). Related to eld.

Phrases

  • an old dog for a hard road
  • any old
  • any old how
  • any old kind of way
  • any old nook or cranny
  • any old thing
  • argue like an old married couple
  • as demure as an old whore at a christening

Related words

Broader terms

See also

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.