old

adjective

1)

old ladies

Syn:

elderly, aged, older, senior, advanced in years, up in years; venerable; in one's dotage, long in the tooth, gray-haired, grizzled, hoary; past one's prime, not as young as one was, ancient, decrepit, doddering, doddery, not long for this world, senescent, senile, superannuated; informal getting on, past it, over the hill, no spring chicken

Ant:

young

2)

that old barn is an eyesore

Syn:

dilapidated, broken-down, beat-up, run-down, tumbledown, ramshackle, decaying, crumbling, disintegrating

Ant:

new, modern

3)

old clothes

an old sofa

Syn:

worn, worn out, shabby, threadbare, holey, torn, frayed, patched, tattered, moth-eaten, ragged; old-fashioned, out of date, outmoded, démodé; castoff, hand-me-down; informal tatty

Ant:

new, fashionable

4)

a collector of old cars

the city's old architecture

Syn:

antique, historic, vintage, classic; veteran

Ant:

new, modern

5)

she's old for her years

Syn:

mature, wise, sensible, experienced, worldly-wise, knowledgeable

Ant:

young, inexperienced

6)

in the old days

Syn:

bygone, past, former, olden, of old, previous, early, earlier, earliest; medieval, ancient, classical, primeval, primordial, prehistoric, antediluvian

Ant:

modern, recent

7)

the same old phrases

Syn:

hackneyed, hack, banal, trite, overused, overworked, tired, worn out, stale, clichéd, platitudinous, unimaginative, pedestrian, stock, conventional; out of date, outdated, old-fashioned, outmoded, archaic, obsolete, antiquated, hoary; informal old hat, corny, played out

Ant:

fresh, innovative

8)

an old girlfriend

Syn:

former, previous, ex-, one-time, erstwhile, once, then; formal quondam

Ant:

new

9)

the town has held tight to its old ways

Syn:

time-honored, old-time, long-established, age-old; familiar, established; customary, usual, routine, habitual; historic, folk, ancestral, old-world

Ant:

modern, progressive

•

- old age

- old person

••

old, aged, ancient, antediluvian, antiquated, archaic, obsolete

Almost no one likes to be thought of as old, which means having been in existence or use for a relatively long time (an old washing machine). But those who are aged, indicating a longer life span than old and usually referring to persons of very advanced years, are often proud of the fact that they have outlived most of their peers. Children may exaggerate and regard their parents as ancient, which means dating back to the remote past, often specifically the time before the end of the Roman Empire (ancient history), and their attitudes as antediluvian, which literally means dating back to the period before the biblical Great Flood and Noah's ark (an antediluvian transportation system). Some people seem older than they really are, simply because their ideas are antiquated, which means out of vogue or no longer practiced (antiquated ideas about dating). Things rather than people are usually described as archaic, which means having the characteristics of an earlier, sometimes primitive, period (archaic words like "thou" and "thine"). Obsolete also refers to things, implying that they have gone out of use or need to be replaced by something newer (an obsolete textbook; a machine that will be obsolete within the decade).