old

Of an object, concept, relationship, etc., having existed for a relatively long period of time.

Adjective

  1. Of an object, concept, relationship, etc., having existed for a relatively long period of time.
    • an old abandoned building
    • an old friend
    • They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come...

    1. Of a living being, having lived for most of the expected years.

      • a wrinkled old man

    2. Of a perishable item, having existed for most of, or more than, its shelf life.

      • an old loaf of bread

    3. Of a species or language, belonging to a lineage that is distantly related to others.

      • the ginkgo is one of the oldest living trees
      • Basque is the oldest language in Europe
  2. Having been used and thus no longer new or unused.
    • I find that an old toothbrush is good to clean the keyboard with.
  3. Having existed or lived for the specified time.
    • How old are they? She’s five years old and he's seven. We also have a young teen and a two-year-old child.
    • My great-grandfather lived to be a hundred and one years old.
  4. Of an earlier time.
    • My new car is not as good as my old one. a school reunion for Old Etonians
    • The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; for, even after she had conquered her love for the Celebrity, the...
    • But over my old life, a new life had formed. - 1994, Michael Grumley, Life Drawing:

    1. Former, previous.

    2. That is no longer in existence.

      • The footpath follows the route of an old railway line.

    3. Obsolete; out-of-date.

      • That is the old way of doing things; now we do it this way.

    4. Familiar.

      • When he got drunk and quarrelsome they just gave him the old heave-ho.
      • Adrian thought it worth while to try out his new slang. ‘I say, you fellows, here's a rum go. Old Biffo was jolly odd this morning. He gave me a lot of pi-jaw about slacking and then invited me to tea. No rotting! He...

    5. (UK) Being a graduate or alumnus of a school, especially a public school.

  5. Tiresome after prolonged repetition.
    • Rik: But even great shtick can get old real fast: the dreaded Saturday Night Live syndrome. Jim: Randomness can help - many Living Books have characters that do different things each time you click on them. - 1995,...
    • John and I built a small stone house on the head of “Bonetta” Canyon and had a hog killing time all by ourselves. Hunting was our delight at first, until it became old. - 2000, Charles A. Siringo, A Texas Cowboy: or,...
    • The songs start to get old real fast, and it's easy to get bored after the third song. - 2008, Homer L. Hall, Logan H. Aimone, High School Journalism, The Rosen Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 171:
  6. Said of subdued colors, particularly reds, pinks and oranges, as if they had faded over time.

    Synonyms: antique

  7. A grammatical intensifier, often used in describing something positive, and combined with another adjective.
    • We're having a good old time.
    • My next car will be a big old SUV.
    • My wife makes the best little old apple pie in Texas.

    Synonyms: ol'

  8. Indicating affection and familiarity.
    • Finally, when they were all done slobbering around, old Sally introduced us. - 1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 165:
  9. Designed for a mature audience; unsuitable for children below a certain age.
    • Monsieur's story is too old for our Juvenile Magazine. - 1868, Oliver Optic's Magazine: Our Boys and Girls ..., page 431:
    • The text is too old for toddlers, but the colorful photographs are large enough and appropriate for them. - 1998, Rita Schrank, Science, Math, and Nutrition for Toddlers: Setting the Stage for Serendipity:
    • Diane Ehrensaft (1997) finds that middle-class parents typically buy "older" toys for their children to encourage accelerated development. - 2006 January 9, Christine L. Williams, Inside Toyland: Working, Shopping, and...
  10. Excessive, abundant.
    • URSULA: Madam, you must come to your uncle. Yonder's old coil at home: it is proved, my Lady Hero hath been falsely accused, the prince and Claudio mightily abused; - 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare,...

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...

Forms

older elder oldest eldest oldermost ol ol' ole owld aad oul oul' ould olde aud aul auld wold

Synonyms

ancient long in the tooth paleo- aged ageing aging elderly on in years of age erstwhile ex- former one-time past antiquated obsolete outdated age-old antediluvian auld cobwebbed cobwebby decrepit eld

Antonyms

brand new fresh new neo- ceno- young current latest new-fangled nubile

Hyponyms

Specific cases: elderly stale Very old: centuried prehistoric primeval

Related

creaky former moldy obsolete ragged rotten timeworn used wearisome withered oldly oldness old man old woman

Derived

age-old Aldgate 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 as old as Methuselah as old as time itself back to the old drawing board bad old days bicker like an old married couple big old centuries-old chip off the old block chip of the old block come the old acid come the old soldier comfortable as an old shoe day-old dirty old man

Noun

  1. People who are old; old beings; the older generation, taken as a group.
    • A civilised society should always look after the old in the community.
  2. A person older than oneself, especially an adult in relation to a teenager.
    • Near-synonyms: geezer, oldie, oldster; see also Thesaurus:old person
    • I'm not letting an old wreck my good time today.
    • I'm not letting any olds wreck my good time today.

    Synonyms: geezer oldie oldster ager antique badge-cove cheeser coffin dodger crinkly eld elder elderly geriatric genarian grayhead greyhead hoarhead mzee old no spring chicken old timer old-timer oldtimer older adult

  3. One's parents.
    • I had to sneak out to meet my girlfriend and tell the olds I was going to the library.
  4. A typically dark-coloured lager brewed by the traditional top-fermentation method.
    • We crossed to the pub on the corner of Carlisle Street and I ordered two schooners of old for him and one of light for me. - 2010, Peter Corris, Torn Apart, Allen and Unwin, page 117:

    Antonyms: new

Forms

olds ol ol' ole owld aad oul oul' ould olde aud aul auld wold