AskDefine | Define old

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Dictionary Definition

old adj
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's eagle mind"--William Butler Yeats; "his mother is very old"; "a ripe old age"; "how old are you?" [ant: young]
2 of long duration; not new; "old tradition"; "old house"; "old wine"; "old country"; "old friendships"; "old money" [ant: new]
3 of an earlier time; "his old classmates"
4 (used for emphasis) very familiar; "good old boy"; "same old story" [syn: old(a)]
5 lacking originality or spontaneity; no longer new; "moth-eaten theories about race" [syn: stale, moth-eaten]
6 just preceding something else in time or order; "the previous owner"; "my old house was larger" [syn: previous(a)]
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"
8 old in experience; "an old offender"; "the older soldiers" [syn: older]
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" [syn: honest-to-god, honest-to-goodness, old(a), sure-enough(a)] n : past times (especially in the phrase `in days of old')

User Contributed Dictionary

English

Etymology

ald, from Germanic *alđoz ‘grown-up’, originally a participle form corresponding to Latin altus. Cognate with Dutch oud, German alt.

Pronunciation

  • a UK /əʊld/, /@Uld/
  • a US , /oʊld/, /oUld/
  • Rhymes: -əʊld

Adjective

old ( older or elder, oldest or eldest)
  1. Of an object, concept, etc., having existed for a relatively long period of time.
    • an old abandoned building
  2. Of a living being, having lived for relatively many years.
    • a wrinkled old man
  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.
    • My great-grandfather lived to be a hundred and one years old.
    • a five-year-old car
  4. Former, previous.
    • My new car is not as good as my old one.
    • 1994, Michael Grumley, Life Drawing
      But over my old life, a new life had formed.
  5. Obsolete; out-of-date.
    • That is the old way of doing things; now we do it this way.
  6. Tiresome
    Your constant pestering is getting old.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations

of an object, concept, etc: having existed for a relatively long period of time
of a living being: having lived for relatively many years
former
having existed or lived for the specified time
  • Bosnian: star
  • Catalan: translated by tenir followed by the length of time
    She’s five years old — Ella té cinc anys
  • Czech: starý
  • Danish: gammel
  • Finnish: vuotias
    I am five years old - Olen viisivuotias
  • French: translated by avoir followed by the length of time
    She’s five years old — Elle a cinq ans
    a five-year-old car — une voiture qui a cinq ans, une voiture de cinq ans
  • Hebrew: בֵּן (ben) , בַּת (bat)
    She’s five years old — הִיא בַּת חָמֵש שָׁנִים
    a five-year-old car — מְכוֹנִית בַּת חָמֵש שָׁנִים
  • Irish: d'aois (of age)
    She’s five years old — Tá sí cúig bhliana d’aois
  • Italian: translated by avere followed by the length of time
    She’s five years old — Ha cinque anni
    a five-year-old car — una macchina che ha cinque anni
  • Norwegian: gammel
  • Polish: stary, stara, stare
  • Russian: (dative case) ему пять лет
  • Serbian:
    Cyrillic: стар
    Roman: star
  • Slovak: starý , stará , staré
  • Slovene: star , stara , staro
  • Spanish: que + (tener) + (period) + (unit of time)
    (e.g., I know his five-year-old daughter = Conozco a su hija que tiene cinco años)
  • Swedish: gammal
  • Turkish: five years old = 5 yaşında
  • West Frisian: âld

Hungarian

Verb

old
  1. to solve
  2. to untie

Extensive Definition

Old may refer to:

Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words

abandoned, abjured, adult, advanced, advanced in life, advanced in years, age-old, aged, ageless, along in years, ancient, antediluvian, antiquated, antique, archaic, auld, big, blase, bygone, constant, continuing, cosmopolitan, cosmopolite, dated, dateless, demode, deserted, discontinued, disused, done with, early, elderly, enduring, erstwhile, established, experienced, firm, fore, former, getting on, gray, gray with age, gray-haired, gray-headed, grown, grown old, grown-up, hoar, hoary, immemorial, inveterate, knowing, late, lifelong, long-lived, marriable, marriageable, mature, matured, maturescent, not born yesterday, not worth saving, nubile, obsolescent, obsolete, of age, of marriageable age, of old, of yore, old as Methuselah, old as history, old as time, old-fashioned, old-time, old-timey, olden, oldfangled, on the shelf, once, onetime, out, out of use, out-of-date, outdated, outmoded, outworn, overage, passe, past, past use, patriarchal, pensioned off, perennial, perpetual, practical, practiced, prehistoric, previous, primeval, primitive, prior, quondam, recent, relinquished, renounced, resigned, retired, ripe, ripened, sagacious, seasoned, senectuous, skilled, solid, sometime, sophisticated, staying, steady, superannuate, superannuated, superseded, then, timeless, timeworn, traditional, tried, tried and true, venerable, versed, vet, veteran, whilom, white, white with age, white-bearded, white-crowned, white-haired, world-wise, worldly, worldly-wise, worn-out, wrinkled, wrinkly, years old
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