old

  • (a) (used especially of persons) having lived for a relatively long time or attained a specific age
    • his mother is very old
    • a ripe old age
    • how old are you?
  • (a) of long duration; not new
    • old tradition
    • old house
    • old wine
    • old country
    • old friendships
    • old money
  • (s) (used for emphasis) very familiar
    • good old boy
    • same old story
  • (s) skilled through long experience
    • an old offender
    • the older soldiers
    older,
  • (s) belonging to some prior time
    • erstwhile friend
    • our former glory
    • the once capital of the state
    • her quondam lover
    erstwhile, onetime, one-time, quondam, sometime, former,
  • (s) (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
    honest-to-god, honest-to-goodness, sure-enough,
  • (s) 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
  • (s) just preceding something else in time or order
    • the previous owner
    • my old house was larger
    previous,

Nouns

  • (n) past times (especially in the phrase "in days of old")

Synonyms

older erstwhile onetime one-time quondam sometime former honest-to-god honest-to-goodness sure-enough previous

Antonyms

young immature new

See also

experienced experient mature senior noncurrent nonmodern past stale worn

Words of close approximity

ola olm
OB o.d. OD OH O.K. OK on OR os OV ox oz.
oaf oak oar OAS oat obi oca Oct odd ode Odo O.E.D. OED off Ofo oft Ohm OIG oil OIS oka ola olm OMB one ONI Ono ooh Ops opt OPV orb ore Orr otc Oto out owe owl own
old age old-age insurance old-age pension old-age pensioner old bag Old Bailey old boy old boy network Old Bulgarian Old Bullion Old Catholic Old Catholic Church Old Church Slavic Old Church Slavonic old codger Old Colony old country Old Delhi Old Dominion Old Dominion State olden Oldenburg Old English Old English sheepdog older olde worlde Old Faithful old fashioned old-fashioned old-fashionedness Oldfield old-field toadflax Old French Old Frisian old geezer Old Glory old gold old growth old guard old hand old-hat Old Hickory Old High German Old Icelandic oldie Old Irish Old Ironsides oldish Old Italian old lady Old Latin oldline old-line Old Line State old maid old maid flower old-maidish old-maid's bonnet old man old man of the mountain old-man-of-the-woods old man's beard old master old money oldness Old Nick Old Norse Old North French Old North State old person Old Prussian old rose old salt Old Saxon old school old school tie old sledge Old South old squaw old stager oldster old style Old Style calendar old style font Old Testament old-time oldtimer old-timer old times Olduvai Gorge oldwench oldwife old witchgrass old witch grass old wives' tale old woman old-womanish Old World old-world Old World beaver