old — OET · Shobdo

old

adjective

1 old people:

elderly, mature, aged, older, senior, advanced in years, up in years, getting on;

in one's dotage, long in the tooth, grey, grey-haired, grey-bearded, grizzled, hoary;

past one's prime, not as young as one was, ancient, decrepit, doddering, doddery, not long for this world, ripe, senescent, senile, superannuated, venerable, septuagenarian, octogenarian, nonagenarian, centenarian;

informal past it, over the hill, no spring chicken;

rare longevous.

▷antonyms young.

2 old farm buildings:

historic, antiquated;

dilapidated, broken-down, run down, tumbledown, ramshackle, decaying, crumbling, disintegrating.

▷antonyms new, modern.

3 old clothes:

worn, worn out, shabby, threadbare, holey, torn, frayed, patched, tattered, moth-eaten, ragged, yellowed;

old-fashioned, out of date, outmoded;

cast-off, hand-me-down;

French démodé;

informal tatty.

▷antonyms new, fashionable.

4 old cars:

antique, veteran, vintage.

▷antonyms new, modern.

5 she is old for her years | he's an old hand:

mature, wise, sensible, experienced, worldly-wise, knowledgeable, well versed, familiar, practised, skilled, skilful, adept, expert, veteran.

▷antonyms young, ingenuous, inexperienced.

6 in the old days:

bygone, past, former, olden, of old, remote, previous, early, earlier, earliest;

medieval, ancient, classical, primeval, primordial, prehistoric, antediluvian, forgotten, immemorial.

▷antonyms modern, recent.

7 political worthies spew out the same old phrases:

hackneyed, hack, banal, trite, overused, overworked, cut and dried, tired, worn out, time-worn, stale, stereotyped, clichéd, platitudinous, unoriginal, derivative, unimaginative, commonplace, common, pedestrian, prosaic, run-of-the-mill, stock, conventional;

out of date, outdated, old-fashioned, outmoded, archaic, obsolete, defunct, extinct, antiquated, antediluvian, superannuated, hoary;

French passé;

informal old hat, out of the ark, corny, fuddy-duddy, played out, hacky;

Northern English, informal antwacky.

▷antonyms fresh, innovative, new.

8 I love the good old tunes:

time-honoured, old-time, long-established, age-old, long-standing, long-lived, enduring, lasting;

familiar, customary, conventional, established, ritual, ritualistic, habitual, set, fixed, routine, usual, wonted, historic, folk, old-world, ancestral.

9 an old girlfriend:

former, previous, ex-, one-time, sometime, erstwhile, once, then, lapsed;

formal quondam.

▷antonyms new.

□ old age

declining years, advanced years, elderliness, age, agedness, oldness, winter/autumn of one's life, senescence, senility, dotage.

▷antonyms youth, childhood.

□ old man

senior citizen, pensioner, OAP, elder, elderly man, grandfather;

patriarch;

Scottish, & Irish bodach;

informal greybeard, old codger, old boy, old geezer, wrinkly, gaffer;

British, informal old bloke, old chap, buffer, josser;

North American, informal old coot;

archaic grandsire, ancient;

literary senex.

▷antonyms youth, boy, young man.

2 informal her old man was away fighting:

husband, man;

informal hubby, better half;

British, informal other half;

humorous lord and master;

archaic lord.

3 informal the old man's still on the bridge:

captain, owner, boss, employer, foreman, manager, overseer, superintendent, director, controller, head, headman, principal;

informal head honcho;

British, informal gaffer, guv'nor;

North American, informal sachem.

□ old person

senior citizen, senior, pensioner, old-age pensioner, OAP, elder, old fogey, dotard, Methuselah;

North American golden ager;

informal old stager, old-timer, oldie, wrinkly, crock, crumbly;

North American, informal oldster, woopie;

offensive geriatric.

▷antonyms youngster.

□ old woman

senior citizen, pensioner, OAP, elderly woman, crone;

Russian babushka;

informal old dear;

archaic beldam, grandam, gammer, mother.

▷antonyms girl, young woman.

2 informal his old woman threw him out:

wife, spouse, bride;

informal old lady, wifey, better half, missus, the little woman;

British, informal other half, her indoors, (old) dutch, trouble and strife;

North American, informal mama, mamma;

dated lady, memsahib.

3 informal my old woman took me to all sorts of doctors when I was a kid:

mother;

Indian amma;

informal ma, mammy, old dear, old lady;

British, informal mum, mummy, mam, mumsy;

North American, informal mom, mommy;

dated mama, mamma, mater.

4 he's such an old woman:

worrier, perfectionist, stickler, grumbler;

informal fusspot;

North American, informal fussbudget.

word links	old
gerontic relating to old age geriatric relating to old people geriatrics branch of medicine concerning old people gerontology study of old age gerontocracy government by old people senesce deteriorate with old age archaeo- related prefix, as in archaeology, archaeopteryx palaeo- related prefix, as in palaeography, Palaeocene

old Oxford Dictionary of English