Definition of old

What does the word old mean?

• part of speech: noun

  O. Age Pensions Act, that of 1908 providing weekly payment by the State to those over 70 whose income is not over £31 10s.; the O. Hundredth, the hymn \'All people that on carth do dwell\', a version of Ps. c by W. Kethe first printed in the Geneva English Psalter (1561); the O. Masters, Royal Academy\'s annual winter exhibition at Burlington House.

• part of speech: adjective

  (ELDER, -est, in particular uses; ordinarily older, -est), & n. Advanced in age, far on in natural period of existence, not young or near its beginning, (the o., aged people; young& o., every one; o. age, later part of life; O. Lady of Thread needle Street, Bank of England; o. man of the sea, person who can not be shaken off, w. ref. to tale of Sindbad; o. man &c.; my &c. o. man colloq., husband; o. man\'s beard, kind of moss, also TRAVELLER\'s Joy; my &c. o. woman colloq., wife; o. woman, fussy or timid man, whence old-womanish, old-womanly, aa., old-womanishness, old-womanliness, nn.; my &c. o. bones, I or me &c. who am o.; the century grows o.); having characteristics, experience, feebleness, &c., of age (o. head on young shoulders, wisdom beyond one\'s years; child has an o. face; o. buffer, fogy, &c.; a man is as o. as he feels), worn, dilapidated, shabby, (o. clothes &c.); (appended to period of time) of age (is ten years o., a ten-year-o. boy, a boy OF ten years o., could read Greek at ten years o.; also ellipt. four &c. -year-o., person or animal, esp. racehorse, of that age, w. pl. -olds); practised or inveterate in action or quality or as agent &c. (o. in crime, folly, cunning, diplomacy: an o. campaigner, offender; o. bird, person on his guard against snares; o. hand, practised workman, person of experience in something, at doing; o. STAGER; o. bachelor, man confirmed in bachelorhood; o. maid, elderly spinster, whence old-maidish a., also precise& tidy& fidgety man, also a round card game); dating from far back, made long ago, long established or known or familiar or dear, ancient, not new or recent, primeval, (o. Ocean, Night, &c.; o. red sandstone; of o. standing, long established; so o.-established; o. as the hills; o. countries, long inhabited or civilized; o. friends; an o. debt, grudge, o. SCORES; an o. name, family; o. wine, matured with keeping; so O. Tom, kind of gin; o. gold, colour of tarnished gold; o. CATHOLIC; the o., what is not new; o. testament; o. boy, chap, fellow, man, esp. in voc., intimate or person treated as such; O. England; the o. one or gentleman, O. Harry, Nick, Scratch, &c., the devil; good o. with name, slang exclamation in real or ironical commendation of person\'s or thing\'s performance; have a fine, good, high, &c., o. time &c. slang, be well amused or entertained); belonging only or chiefly to the past, obsolete or obsolescent, out of date, antiquated, antique, concerned with antiquity, not modern, bygone, only lingering on, former, quondam, (the good o. times, customs &c. of earlier generations; o. annals; o. fashions, that have gone or are going out, whence old-fashioned a., old-fashionedness n., opp. new-fangled &c.; am old-fashioned enough to think, used in ironical self-depreciation; of the o. school, o.-fashioned; the o. country, home, &c., used by colonists or colonials of mother-country; call up o. memories; the o. order changeth; have lost my o. beliefs; o. boy, former member of school; so o. Etonian &c.; the O. COMEDY; o. London, Paris, England, &c., London &c. as it once was, or the extant relics of its former state; the o. man, one\'s unregenerate self; the O. World, Eastern hemisphere; o.-world, not American, also belonging to o. times, & so o.-time attrib.; O.STYLE, abbr. o.s.; the o. year, just ended or about to end; o. clothes, discarded; o.-clothes-man, dealer in these); hence oldish (2) a., oldness n. (rare). (N.) o. time (only in of o. adj. & adv., as the men of o., of o. there were giants; have heard it of o., from long ago). [old English]