| 释义 |
▪ I. old, a. (adv., n.1)|əʊld|
Forms: see below.
[Com. Teut.: Early ME. old:—OE. ald (WSax. eald) = OFris. and OS. ald (MDu. out, oud-, Du. oud, MLG. old, LG. oll), OHG. (MHG., Ger.) alt:—OTeut. *alˈđo-z, orig. a ppl. formation (corresp. to Gr. forms in -τός, L. -tus) from OTeut. vb. stem al-, Goth. al-an to grow up, ON. al-a to nourish, bring up, cognate with L. al-ĕre to nourish: cf. cold a. OTeut. *alđoz was thus app. = ‘grown up, adult’, corresp. in form to L. altus grown or become great, tall. ON. wanted the positive (supplied by gamall; comp. ellri, superl. ellztr); Goth. had the related derivative form alþeis (:—*alþijoz). The original OE. form ald (also in Early WSax. and Early Kent.), remained in Anglian, and has come down in Northern dial., in later Sc. written awld, auld, in north. Eng. dial. aud, aad, ahd. In midl. Eng., OE. ald, lengthened to āld, became regularly ōld (cf. bold, cold, hold, sold, told), which remains the standard Eng. form (in ME. also written oold, in dial. wold, ould, owld, ole, owd). The WSax. and Kentish eald came down into ME. as eald, yeald, yald, eeld, eld; it is now extinct (but cf. eld a.). The original comparative and superlative, still retained in particular uses, are elder (:—*aldira), eldest, q.v.; in the general sense these have been superseded by older, oldest (see also alder, aldest). Derivatives are † ald, † alder n.2, alderman, eld n.2, v., elder n.3]
A. Illustration of Forms.
(α) 1–5 (Sc. –6) ald, (4–5 alde, 3–4 hald, 4 alld, halde), 4–5, Sc. 4–, auld, (4 aulde, hauld, 5–6 awld, -e, 7– north. Eng. dial. awd, aud, aad).
c725Corpus Gloss. 173 Anus, ald uuif. Ibid. 1854 Senex, ald. a800Leiden Gloss. 132 Quotus, hu ald; totus, suæ ald. c825Vesp. Psalter cxlviii. 12 Alde mid ᵹingrum. c875O.E. Chron. an. 871 Sidroc eorl..se alda. c950Lindisf. Gosp. Luke i. 18 Ic forðon am ald. c1200Ormin 126 Till þatt teȝȝ wærenn alde. c1205Lay. 2959 Þe alde king. a1250Owl & Night. 1183 For þine alde niþe. a1300Cursor M. 9224 (Cott.) Four hundret winter ald [Fairf. halde, Trin. old]. Ibid. 12578 (Cott.) Ar he was tuelue yeir alld [Gött. ald, Fairf. alde]. 1340Ayenb. 104 He ijs ald. Ibid. 219 A guod ald wyf. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints. Egipciane 413, I ame auld & febil bathe. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) iv. 12 In ane alde castell. a1430Morte Arth. 279 As awlde mene telles. 1549Compl. Scot. 1 Oure ald enemies. 1588A. King tr. Canisius' Catech. H ij, Ye awld kallendar. 1611Mure Misc. Poems i. 6 In auld Neptunus' source. 1790Burns Tam o' Shanter 15 Auld Ayr, wham ne'er a town surpasses.
(β) 1–4 eald, 3 æld, 2–4 eld, 3 eold, 4–5 eeld, yeald, yald, 4–5 elde (helde).
c831Kentish Charter in Sweet O.E. Texts 446, [An] eald hriðer. c888K. ælfred Boeth. xxxix. §3 Sie eald ᵹesceaft. c1000Ags. Gosp. Luke i. 18 Ic eom nu eald. c1175Lamb. Hom. 9 On þa ealde laȝe [Ibid., on þan alde laȝe]. c1200Moral Ode 4 (Egerton MS.) Þech ich beo a wintre eald, to ȝung ich eom at rede. c1205Lay. 7031 Þe ȝunge wifmen & þe ælde [c 1275 holde]. c1275Ibid. 2916 In þan eolde [c 1205 holde] daiȝe hit was a borh riche. c1290Becket 195 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 112 Are it were seue ȝer eld. 1340Ayenb. 7 Ine þe yalde laȝe. Ibid. 46 Ine þe ealde laȝe. 1388Wyclif 2 Kings iv. 14 Hir hosebonde is eeld. c1440Promp. Parv. 137/2 Elde or olde [1499 ed. Pynson eeld or worne].
(γ) 3– old, (3–5 hold, 4–5 -e, oold, -e, 4 owd, 5 ole, wold, -e, 5–6 olde, 6 owld, -e, 6–7 ould, -e, 8–9 dial. owd, wold).
c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 199 Þenne hie beð old. c1205Lay. 3002 Þe olde [c 1275 holde] kinge. 1340–70Alex. & Dind. 327 Whan we holde waxen. 1382Wyclif Gen. xliii. 27 Ȝoure oold fader. c1400Apol. Loll. 23 Þe Wold Testament. 1426Audelay Poems 73 Weder that he were hold or ȝong. c1440Promp. Parv. 363/2 Ole, for-weryd, as clothys. 1447O. Bokenham Seyntys (Roxb.) 45 The wolde law. c1489Caxton Sonnes of Aymon 452 There nys noo man so oolde. 1530Palsgr. 250/1 Oulde house that is in ruyne. 1537Wriothesley Chron. (1875) I. 62 The owld judgment of this realme. c1746Collier (Tim Bobbin) Lanc. Dial. Wks. (1862) 56 There's on owd Cratchenly Gentlemon. 1864Tennyson North. Farmer 49 A mowt 'a taäen owd Joänes. 1891T. Hardy Tess (1900) 8/1 I've got a wold silver spoon and a wold graven seal at home.
B. Signification.
I. Having lived or existed a relatively long time.
1. That has lived long; far advanced in years or life. Said of men, animals, and plants, also of their limbs, organs, faculties, etc. (Opposed to young; less emphatic than aged.) old one, old un, an elderly person, esp. one's father or mother; any old: see any a. and pron. 1 e.
Often absolutely: the old (pl.), old people; so old and young, young and old (sc. people).
Beowulf 357 Þær Hroðgar sæt eald ond unhar. c950[see A. α]. c1050Byrhtferth's Handboc in Anglia (1885) VIII. 299 Swa byð se ealda man ceald & snofliᵹ. c1200[see A. γ]. c1205[see A. α]. a1250Owl & Night. 25 On old stoc. a1300Cursor M. 2779 (Cott.) Yong and ald, bath barn and man. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xviii. 9 How osanna by orgonye olde folke songen. 1398Trevisa Barth De P.R. vi. xiv. (1495) 198 Of suche foules..the yonge fede the olde whan thei maye not for aege gete theyr owne mete. c1420Pallad. on Husb. iv. 723 Of myddil age, and rather yonge then olde. 1484Caxton Fables of æsop ii. vii, Now when I am bycome old and feble. 1508Dunbar Tua Mariit Wemen 277 Weil couth I..bler his ald E. 1568E. Tilney Disc. Mariage A iv b, An olde Gentleman called M. Erasmus. 1593Shakes. Rich. II, i. ii. 67 What shall good old Yorke there see But empty lodgings? 1597Middleton Wisdom of Solomon xii. 3 Bald, because old, old, because living long. 1610Shakes. Temp. iii. iii. 2 My old bones akes. 1632Milton L'Allegro 97 When..young and old com forth to play On a Sunshine Holyday. 1770Goldsmith Des. Vill. 20 The young contending as the old survey'd. 1784Cowper Task iv. 172 Under an old oak's domestic shade. 1836Dickens Pickw. (1837) xx. 204 ‘It's the old 'un.’ ‘Old one,’ said Mr. Pickwick. ‘What old one?’ ‘My father, Sir,’ replied Mr. Weller. 1838T. Thomson Chem. Org. Bodies 947 Old trees are frequently affected with a kind of ulcer. 1841–4Emerson Ess., Love Wks. (Bohn) I. 71 This passion..though it begin with the young, yet forsakes not the old. 1854C. M. Yonge Heartsease I. ii. xiv. 341 He is the great pride of the old folks at Worthbourne. 1864Tennyson Grandmother 18 All my children have gone before me, I am so old. 1868Haileyburian I. 4/2 The Present won the toss, and completely ‘penned’ the ‘old 'uns’. 1915N. L. McClung In Times like These xix. 130 Did you ever visit an old folks' home and notice the different spirit shown by the men and women there? 1921G. B. Shaw Back to Methuselah v. 253 There! What have you to say to that, old one? 1968M. Bragg Without City Wall xxvi. 237 In the Women's Institute the streamers, well hung..were still taut, after the Old Folks' Tea. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 21 Feb. 2/4 Many more old folks would pay an additional charge for the protection in any one year than would enjoy its benefits against large doctor and hospital bills. And that's not the best way to harvest votes among the elderly.
fig.1500–20Dunbar Poems xlvii. 9 As the ta lufe vaxis auld, The tothir dois incress moir kene. 1638Ford Fancies v. iii, Night draws on, And quickly will grow old. 1822Shelley Triumph of Life 538 Long before the day Was old.
b. Having the characteristics (physical or mental) of age.
1832Lytton Eugene A. i. vi, We grow old before our time. 1837Marryat Percival Keene xix, You appear to have an old head upon very young shoulders. 1842Tennyson Gardener's Dau. 52 So old at heart, At such a distance from his youth in grief. 1866G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. i. (1878) 3 It is not a pleasant thing for a young man..to have an old voice. 1895Daily News 30 Nov. 3/1 ‘Nowadays’, she says, ‘it is only old people who do not grow old’.
c. Used disparagingly; esp. colloq. and slang in such collocations as old bloke, buffer, cat, codger, fogy (see these words). old bag (see bag n. 17); old boy, used of an old man (see also as main entry); old geezer (see geezer); old girl (see girl n. 2 a); old pot, one's father (chiefly Austral.); old trot (see trot n.2); old trout [perh. var. of trot n.2 infl. by trout n.1 4], colloq. applied to an old woman.
1508Dunbar Tua Mariit Wemen 126, I dar nought keik to the knaip that the cop fillis, For eldnyng of that ald schrew. 1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. i. ii. 80 An old trot with ne're a tooth in her head. a1625Fletcher Hum. Lieut. iii. iv, Peace, you old fool. 1820Shelley Hymn to Mercury xv, Halloo! old fellow with the crooked shoulder! You grub those stumps? 1866Carlyle Remin. i. (1881) 186 An ‘agricultural dandy’ or old fogie, of Hibernian type. 1888R. Boldrewood Robbery Under Arms (Farmer), I used to laugh at him, and call him a regular old crawler. 1893G. B. Shaw Widowers' Houses ii. iv. 43 He wont have any news to break, poor old boy: she's read all the letters already. 1916C. J. Dennis Songs Sentimental Bloke 124 The old pot, the male parent (from ‘Rhyming Slang’, the ‘old pot and pan’—the ‘old man’). 1930G. B. Shaw Apple Cart i. 3 When they found him he was melancholy mad, poor old boy; and he never got over it. a1938C. J. Dennis in Penguin Bk. Austral. Ballads (1964) 234 Oh, w'erefore art you Romeo, young sir? Chuck yer ole pot, an' change yer moniker! 1938N. Marsh Artists in Crime ix. 128 Miss Troy thought I was good enough to come here, even if my old pot did keep a bottle store. Ibid. 129 ‘What about Mr. Pilgrim?’ ‘Aw, he's different... I get on with him good-oh, even if his old pot is one of these lords. Him and me's cobbers.’ 1956B. Goolden Singing & Gold viii. 172 Drives old ladies about the town and that... Wouldn't suit me though. Don't see yours truly rushing to carry the old trouts' shopping baskets. 1958J. Cannan And be a Villain vi. 140 The old trout wasn't exactly throwing her money about, he'd say. 1964R. Braddon Year Angry Rabbit x. 90 Too high and mighty for his old trout of a mum nowadays is young Gary. 1972N. Marsh Tied up in Tinsel xviii. 197 'Er old pot was killed saving the colonel's life. 1974L. Thomas Tropic of Ruislip ii. 42 You could scare the old boy and he'll spill his tea. He spills things all the time.
d. Proverbs.
c1470Ashby Active Policy 615 Aftur the oolde dogge the yonge whelpe barkes. 1631R. Brathwait Whimzies, Hospitall-man 45 There is none so desperately old but he hopes to live one yeere longer. 1668Davenant Man's the Master i. i, As the proverb says, put an old cat to an old rat. 1691R. Cromwell Let. in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1898) XIII. 109 There is an old proverb ‘old yong, yong old’. 1883Reade Many a Slip in Harper's Mag. Dec. 141/1 A man is as old as he feels, and a woman's as old as she looks.
2. transf. Belonging to, or characteristic of, old persons; of or pertaining to advanced life; esp. in old age, the period of life of the old or advanced in years, the latter period of life, = age 6; also absol. and attrib., as in old age pension, etc.
13..Seuyn Sag. (W.) 22 He that schal, in thin eld age, Benime the thin heritage. c1380Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 365 It was miracle þat so oold folk brouȝten forþ þis child in her olde daies. c1430Hymns Virg. 79 Lete us praie Þat god send us paciens in oure oolde age. 1500–20Dunbar Poems xxxvi. 27 Thair cumis ȝung airis, That his auld thrift settis on ane ess. 1605Shakes. Lear i. i. 190 Hee'l shape his old course, in a Country new. 1610― Temp. i. ii. 369 Ile racke thee with old Crampes. 1611Bible Gen. xxv. 8 Abraham..died in a good old age [Wyclif in a good elde]. 1707Lond. Gaz. No. 4354/4, 176l. per Ann. in Lease (most of which are very old Lives). 1813Shelley Q. Mab ii. 152 Old age and infancy Promiscuous perished. 1868Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. ix. 414 The great Earl..died in a good old age. 1891Pall Mall G. 18 Dec. 2/1 There is extreme reluctance to devote any of their earnings..to ensuring an old-age annuity.
3. Of material things: Having existed long, long-made, that has been long in use. (Opposed to new.) Hence, Worn with age or long use, or deteriorated through the effects of time; worn out, decayed, dilapidated, shabby, stale, etc.; also, Discarded after long use, disused, gone out of use.
Absolutely: the old, that which is old.
Beowulf 2763 Þær wæs helm moniᵹ eald ond omiᵹ. c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. ix. 16 Ne deþ..nan man niwes claðes scyp on eald reaf. Ibid. xiii. 52 Niwe þing and ealde. c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 163 Ðe chireche cloðes ben to brokene and ealde. c1300Havelok 545 In an eld cloth wnden. 1382Wyclif Matt. ix. 17 Nether men senden newe wijne in to olde botelis. ― Luke v. 39 No man drynkinge old [Tindale olde wine], wole anon newe; sothli he seith, The olde is the betere. 1454Test. Ebor. (Surtees No. 30) 175 On of my ald gownes furred. 1542MS. Acc. St. John's Hosp., Canterb., Rec. for ij olde bee fattis iiijd. 1598B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. i. ii, Drake's old ship at Deptford may sooner circle the world again. 1601Weever Mirr. Mart., Sir John Oldcastle iv, Mans memorie, with new, forgets the old. 1670Dryden Almanzor Prol. 27 They bring old iron and glass upon the stage. a1800Cowper Needless Alarm 53 They [sheep] gathered close around the old pit's brink. 1841Thackeray Gt. Hoggarty Diam. iv, Pale sherry, old port, and cut and come again. a1902Mod. A dealer in old books, old china, and old pictures. A very old book with iron clasps.
†b. In old clothes, shabby. Obs. rare—1.
1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. i. 140 There were none fine, but Adam, Rafe, and Gregory, The rest were ragged, old, and beggerly.
c. any old: see any a. and pron. 1 e.
4. Of (any specified) age or length of existence: e.g. How old? ten days old. When used attrib. with a prec. numeral and n. these are usually hyphened to old (year being used instead of years), as in a six-months-old child, a two-year-old sheep, etc. These attrib. forms are also used absol. as ns.: e.g. a flock of two-year-olds.
The numeral and n. were in OE. in genitive as an advb. determination of eald, e.g. þritiᵹes ᵹeara eald (cf. Ger. drei tage alt, eins tags alt, F. âgé de trente ans); but by the 12th c. the genitive inflexion was dropped; cf. quots. 1110–1200. See also b.
c897K. ælfred Gregory's Past. Care xlix. 385 ær he wæs ðritiᵹes ᵹeara eald. c1000ælfric Gen. xlvii. 8 And [Pharao] axode hyne hu eald he wære. 1110–1123O.E. Chron. an. 1110 He [se mona] wæs..feowertyne nihta eald. 1135–54Ibid. an. 1135 Suilc als it uuore thre niht ald mone. c1200Ormin 7675 Ȝho wass sextiȝ winnterr ald. c1205Lay. 301 He was fiftene ȝer ald. c1330R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 3720 Er he were seuen ȝer old. c1420Pallad. on Husb. iv. 919 A she asse oon yer olde. 1535Coverdale Gen. xvii. 12 Euery manchilde whan it is eight dayes olde, shalbe circumcyded. 1590Shakes. Com. Err. i. i. 45 My absence was not sixe moneths olde. Ibid. ii. ii. 150 In Ephesus I am but two houres old. 1598B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. iii. iii, Your son is old enough to govern himself. 1672Lady M. Bertie in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 26 Wee expect the new Dutches..she is not fifteen yeare old. 1711Steele Spect. No. 11 ⁋4 The Story you have given us is not quite two thousand Years Old. 1780A. Young Tour Irel. I. 182 A child 7 years old earns 1d. a day spinning. 1857Hughes Tom Brown ii. i, I say, young fellow..How old are you? 1872Ruskin Fors Clav. xxi. 7 A wall which was just eighteen hundred years old. 1892Daily News 26 Feb. 5/7 A five-year-old girl. 1899Westm. Gaz. 25 Nov. 6/2 Under the century-old trees.
absol.1769St. James's Chron. 10–11 Aug. 3/4 (Horse-race) Five-year-olds, 9 st. 1849Alb. Smith Pottleton Leg. (repr.) 27 Rising two-score-olds. 1855Tennyson Brook 137 That was the four-year-old I sold the Squire.
b. The expression ‘x years old’ may be preceded by a prep., as if it were a n. phrase = ‘the age of x years’: e.g. ‘a child of ten years old’, ‘from two years old and under’, ‘at, under, or over six months old’.
This construction appears first with of, which may possibly represent the OE. (and Com. Teut.) genitive phr., or the corresponding Fr. phr. with de (see note to 4), so that ‘a child of x years old’ might be orig. = ‘a child old (in respect) of x years’. But there is a chronological gap between the two constructions, the earliest examples of the later being in Cursor M. In one instance, the oldest text has ‘o tua yeir eild’, i.e. ‘of two years' age’, in which the later MSS. substitute old or eild. But in another instance, the reading ‘of thre ȝer alde’ is evidently original. Whether this implies a confusion between old, eld adj. and eld n., as app. in the Chaucer quot. which follows, or the existence of two forms derived from OE. þreora ȝeara eald, viz. ‘three year old’, and ‘of three year old’, is not clear; but what is evident is that ‘x year(s) old’ soon came to be taken in the lump as a n. phr. which might be preceded by any prep., since we find c 1420 ‘from iij yere olde til x’, and in the next cent. ‘at nine months old’ = ‘at the age of nine months’.
A similar usage is found with high, long, broad, deep, etc. (which also in OE. were preceded by a genitive or accus. phr. of dimension); but there the const. with of appears to be later, and that with other preps less usual: see of 39 b.
13..Cursor M. 11566 (Cott.) Wit-in þe land left he noght an O tua yeir eild [G. eilde, F. old, Tr. olde] þat he ne was slan. Ibid. 10587 (Gött.) Þis may [v.r. maiden], bot of thre ȝere alde [C. old, F., Tr. olde] was on þe grece [= stair] i ar of tald. c1374Chaucer Anel. & Arc. 78 (Harl. 372) Yong was this Quene, of xxti yere of eeld [So 2 other MSS.; Harl. 7333, of xxti yere eld; Digby, of xxti yeer olde; so Caxton]. c1420Pallad. on Husb. iv. 734 Caluyng from iij yeer olde Til x is best. c1470Henry Wallace ii. 273 Hyr dochtir had of xij wokkis ald a knayff. 1582N. T. (Rhem.) Matt. ii. 16 From tvvo yere old & vnder [1611 two yeares; Wyclif, fro two ȝeer age and with ynne; Tind., Geneva, as many as were two yere old and vnder]. 1593Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iv. ix. 4, I was made a King, at nine months olde. 1594― Rich. III, ii. iv. 28 He could gnaw a crust at two houres old. 1625J. Mead in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. III. 201 A young man under thirty years old. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 421 A Steer of two Years old. 1727Swift Gulliver i. vi, Those intended for apprentices are dismissed at seven years old. 1818Shelley Rev. Islam ii. xxv, This child of twelve years old.
5. fig. Of long practice and experience in some specified matter or respect, or as an agent or qualified person of some kind; practised, experienced, skilled; also, in slang use, Clever, knowing.
c1000ælfric's Canons §17 in Thorpe Laws II. 348 Na þæt ælc eald sy, ac þæt he eald sy on wisdome. c1220Bestiary 90 Old in hise sinnes dern. c1315Shoreham 52 The sevende ordre hys of the prest, And hys icleped the ealde, Bote nauȝt of ȝeres, ac of wyt. 1552Huloet, Olde souldier, veteranus. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. ii. i. 254 Thou art an old Louemonger, and speakest skilfully. 1638Ford Fancies ii. ii, My stars, I thank ye, for being ignorant, Of what this old-in-mischief can intend! c1652Milton Sonn. to Sir H. Vane, Vane, young in yeares, but in sage counsell old. 1716Lond. Gaz. No. 5412/3 Frances Green,..an old Offender. 1722De Foe Col. Jack (1840) 232 The Germans were too old for us there. 1820Shelley Lett. to M. Gisborne 140, I, an old diviner, who know well Every false verse of that sweet oracle. 1853Lytton My Novel viii. ii, Old in vices, and mean of soul! 1881Jowett Thucyd. I. 152 The Athenians were old sailors and they were only beginners.
b. In various colloq. and slang phrases: as old bird, a person who has become knowing through experience, spec. an experienced thief; old coon (see quot. 1877); old hand (see D. 4); old file, soldier, stager; to be old dog at (a thing).
1589[see dog n.1 15 i]. 1711Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) I. 35 With the old Stagers no matter whom they meet in a Coach, 'tis always Good your Honour! or Good your Lordship! 1722De Foe Col. Jack (1840) 99 The Captain [was] an old soldier at such work. 1784J. Potter Virtuous Villagers II. 9 Philip, who is an old Robin, as the saying is, demurred to the business. 1785Cumberland Observer No. 107 ⁋6 Uncle Antony was an old dog at a dispute. 1835A. B. Longstreet Georgia Scenes 216 To be sure I will, my old coon—take it—take it, and welcome. 1852C. W. H[oskins] Talpa 62 One word of advice from an ‘old file’. 1862Punch 1 Feb. 42/2, I guess them saucy Britishers Won't easy get to leeward Of such an all-fired smart old 'coon As William H. Seward. 1877Five Years' Penal Servitude i. 32 In nine cases out of ten an ‘old bird’ would betray himself. 1877Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 4) 436 ‘He's an old coon,’ is said of one who is very shrewd; often applied to a political manager. 1890W. A. Wallace Only a Sister? 263 Evidently the master was an old bird, he carefully retraced his steps and bolted the door at the foot of the stairs.
6. In colloq. use: = Great, plentiful, abundant, excessive; ‘grand’. Now chiefly after other appreciative adjs., as good, grand, high.
c1440Bone Flor. 681 Gode olde fyghtyng was there. 1590Tarlton News Purgat., Sunday, at masse, there was old ringing of bells. 1599Shakes. Much Ado v. ii. 98 Yonders old coile at home. a1604Hanmer Chron. Irel. 123 note, If they [certain monks] were as fat in those daies as most of them proved after, there would have beene old frying. 1654Gayton Pleas. Notes ii. iv. 50 When fifteen joines to Seventy, there's old doings (as they say), the Man and Wife fitting together like January and May day. 1664Cotton Scarron. 104 There was old drinking and old singing And all the while the Bells were ringing. 1705Hickeringill Priest-cr. ii. Wks. 1716 III. 77 There was old Bandying, and Cursing, and Fighting, and Railing in abundance. 1814Scott Wav. xviii, So there was old to do about ransoming the bridegroom. 1818― Rob Roy xxxii, ‘Here's auld ordering and counter-ordering’ muttered Garschattachin. 1825Brockett N.C. Gloss. s.v., Old-doings, great sport, great feasting—an uncommon display of hospitality.
II. Belonging to former times or an earlier period as well as to the present; long established.
7. a. Dating far back into the past; of ancient origin; made or formed long ago; also poet. of things which have always existed, as elemental forces, etc.: Primeval. (In OE. and early ME. applied to the Creator.)
Beowulf 945 Þæt hyre eald metod este wære bearn-ᵹebyrdo. c888K. ælfred Boeth. xiv. §2 Se ealda cwide is swiðe soð þe mon ᵹefyrn cwæð. c1205Lay. 24885 Ane huse þe wes biclused faste an ald stanene weorc. 1340Ayenb. 104 Me zayth he is ine heuene..he ys ald and yknawe and ydred and yworþssiped and yloued. c1350Alex. & Dind. 798 Ȝoure docturus sain in sawus ful olde. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) iv. 12 Scho lies in ane alde castell. 1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. iii. i. 80 Old fashions please me best. 1634Milton Comus 33 An old, and haughty Nation proud in Arms. 1667― P.L. i. 543 A shout that tore Hells Concave, and beyond Frighted the Reign of Chaos and old Night. 1732Pope Ess. Man i. 158 Who knows but he, whose hand the lightning forms, Who heaves old Ocean, and who wings the storms? 1863H. Cox Instit. iii. iv. 643 His office was as old as the time of the Conquest.
b. In personal or other particular reference (as with agent-noun, etc.): That has long stood in some relation to one; that has been such from of old; not new or recent. old pal: an old friend, freq. with reference to association or collusion in business, spec. in phr. old pal's act (and variants), favour or cooperation based on prior acquaintance.
a1000Juliana 623 (Gr.) Wrecað ealdne nið. a1225Leg. Kath. 1380 Þe deore Drihtin..toc read to ure alde dusischipes. c1440York Myst. xxii. 63, I wolde now som mete wer sene For olde acqueyntaunce vs by-twene. c1470Henry Wallace i. 7 Our ald ennemys cummyn of Saxonys blud. 1500–20Dunbar Poems lx. 68 To thy auld schervandis have an E, That lang hes lippinit into the. 1549Compl. Scot. vi. 67 Corriandir, that is gude for ane ald hoste. 1706Wooden World Diss. (1708) 19 Not purely for their presumptuous Assumption of his proper Title, but out of an old Grutch. a1727Ramsay Auld Langsyne 1 Should auld acquaintance be forgot Tho' they return with scars? 1840R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxvi. 86 Many a good ducking in the surf, did he get to pay up old scores. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iv. I. 505 In satisfaction of an old debt due to him from the crown. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 81, I have a claim upon you as an old friend of your father. a1966M. Allingham Cargo of Eagles (1968) ii. 26 The Old Pal's Act isn't confined to you public school types above stairs now. 1972E. Grierson Confessions of Country Magistrate i. 7 What is this mysterious process by which the man in the street is suddenly transformed into the magistrate on the bench? How, if not by the Old Pals' Act or the Signs of the Zodiac, is the miracle accomplished? 1973Times 23 May 2/3 All these favours given by the Post Office on the old pals network. 1975T. Heald Deadline ii. 18 The old pals act will operate as far as the press is concerned.
c. Known or familiar from of old, or because of former association.
c888K. ælfred Boeth. xxxix. §13 Healdað þa tunglu þa ealdan sibbe þe hi on ᵹesceapne wæron. 1121O.E. Chron. an. 1003 He teah forð þa his ealdan wrenceas. c1386Chaucer Man of Law's T. 269 O Sathan enuious..Wel knowestow to wommen the olde way. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 417 Yet I haue a tricke Of the old rage. 1598― Merry W. iv. ii. 22 Your husband is in his olde lunes [1st fol. lines] againe. 1601― Jul. C. v. i. 63 Ant. Old Cassius still. 1784Cowper Tirocin. 737 Following her old plan. 1820Shelley Hymn to Mercury lxxxvii, While he conceived another piece of fun, One of his old tricks. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xix. IV. 377 The old men had again met in the old hall. 1865Lightfoot Galatians (1874) 22 The Apostle had been travelling over old ground.
d. Phr. (as) old as the hills, exceedingly old; perh. in allusion to Job xv. 7 ‘Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills?’
1819Metropolis I. iii. 58, I thought he was going to make a die of it! Why he's as old as the Hills. 1820Scott Monast. ix. 251 If you were as good a priest as the Pope, and as old as the hills to boot, you shall not carry away Mary's book without her leave. 1821Byron Let. 1 Oct. in Works (1901) V. 385 The Pulci Style, which the fools in England think was invented by Whistlecraft—it is as old as the hills in Italy. 1849Dickens Dav. Copp. (1850) xv. 156 All the angles and corners, and carvings and mouldings, and quaint little panes of glass, and quainter little windows, though as old as the hills, were as pure as any snow that ever fell upon the hills. 1898Tit-Bits 23 Apr. 73/3 The superstition..is almost as old as the hills. 1914‘Bartimeus’ Naval Occasions ix. 66 'Sides, she's as old as the hills. 1937A. Huxley Ends & Means iv. 25 A violent revolution cannot achieve anything except the inevitable results of violence, which are as old as the hills. 1954B. & R. North tr. Duverger's Pol. Parties ii. i. 255 Dictatorship is as old as the hills. 1956A. Wilson Anglo-Saxon Att. i. i. 14 Fifty-five must seem as old as the hills to a girl like you.
e. the old story (and variants), a familiar tale or excuse (usu. with a connotation of implausibility).
1700[see story n.1 6 a]. 1859Geo. Eliot A. Bede I. iv. 75 ‘What! father's forgot the coffin?’ ‘Ay, lad, th' old tale; but I shall get it done.’ 1898J. D. Brayshaw Slum Silhouettes 28 ‘What brought 'em to that?’ Oh, the old story—liftin' their little finger. 1919R. Frost Let. 4 Jan. (1964) 80 Pelle was good reading. But none of it was any news. Not a phrase but was old story. 1938E. Ambler Cause for Alarm xi. 184 Too much or too little—empty stomachs or overfed ones—the old, old story.
8. Used as an expression of familiarity,
a. in addressing or speaking of persons with whom one has an acquaintance of some standing, or whom one treats as such, as in the colloq. old boy, old chap, old fellow, old man; old bean: see bean n. 6 e; old boy: see also boy n.1 5; old dear: usu. of a woman (cf. dear a.1 and n.2 B); old fellow (U.S.): an overseer or ‘boss’; old fruit: see fruit n. 2 e; old girl (see girl n. 2 a); old hen (see hen n. 5 a); old horse (cf. horse n. 4); old hoss: see horse n. 4, hoss 2; old lady: a girl or woman, esp. one's wife or mother; also transf. of a man whose behaviour resembles that of an old lady; old son (cf. son n.1 3 b); old sport: see sport n.1; old thing: see thing n.1; old top (cf. top n.2).
b. with names of places which one has long known, esp. of one's native country: see also 12 b. Often in the collocation good old, a colloq. or cant expression of commendation or appreciation. (Cf. 6.)
a.1588Shakes. Tit. A. iv. ii. 121 Looke how the blacke slaue smiles vpon the father; As who should say, old Lad I am thine owne. 1711Steele Spect. No. 17 ⁋3, I never hear him so lavish of his fine things, as upon old Nell Trott. 1808Scott Marm. vi. Introd. 81 England was merry England, when Old Christmas brought his sports again. 1898Doyle Trag. Korosko ix. 280 There they go giving the alarm! Good old Camel Corps!
1601Shakes. Twel. N. iii. ii. 9 Did she see thee the while, old boy, tell me that. 1872Punch 24 Aug. 81/2 A fellow who can take a joke good-naturedly like you can, old boy.
1892Anstey Voces Populi Ser. ii. 37 Never mind, old chap.
1880[see dear a.1 and n.2 B]. 1955J. Thomas No Banners ii. 23 Remember the old dear at La Souterraine who fed us on bread and ham and cheese and a bottle of wine?
1825C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I. 136, I say, old fellow. 1901S. E. White Blazed Trail xxvii. 187 He was intensely loyal to his ‘Old Fellows’ [= ‘bosses’ of lumber camps].
1906Wodehouse Love among Chickens v. 63 Garney, old horse, you're a marvel. You think of everything. We'll buckle to right away. 1924― Ukridge i. 12 It's a wearing life, laddie. A wearing life, old horse. 1942R.A.F. Jrnl. 3 Oct. 11 ‘Well, old horse,’ I thought, ‘You're going to be disappointed.’ 1960A. Christie Adventure of Christmas Pudding 209 He said with a remarkable lack of medical decorum: ‘That you, Poirot, old horse?’ 1976‘A. Hall’ Kobra Manifesto ii. 24, I wish someone had told me, old horse.
1836Dickens Let. 21 Mar. (1965) I. 141 Let me have particular word how your rheumatism is, old lady. 1859Mrs. Gaskell Lett. (1966) 545 You must not send us any more work to do, old lady, for Caroline is slow, & there is a great deal to do. 1871E. Eggleston Hoosier Schoolmaster (1872) xvii. 134 Here's the old lady and Shocky. 1914Conrad Chance ii. i. 244 The old lady's first-rate, sir, thank you. 1932D. L. Sayers Have his Carcase xii. 152 ‘There, there, Mother,’ muttered Henry... ‘Bit of a staggerer for the old lady, this.’ 1938H. Nicolson Diary 10 Nov. (1966) 378 This memorandum was not at all liked by the old ladies of the Executive. 1967C. Himes Black on Black (1973) 133 A man called T-bone Smith sat..looking at television with his old lady, Tang. 1976New Yorker 17 May 34/2 It is a sign that you wish to share your old lady.
1870‘Mark Twain’ Let. 22 Mar. (1917) I. 172, I can make the money without lecturing. Therefore, old man, count me out.
1885Punch 3 Jan. 4/1 You'll be thinking I've got the blue-mouldies, old man. 1890R. Boldrewood Col. Reformer (1891) 204 Take another tumbler, old man.
1916‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin viii. 142 ‘Ow are we, ole son? Feelin' a bit squeamish?’ 1951S. Spender World within World ii. 66 Do you know, old son, this is the first time you've ever talked with me that I haven't been completely bored? 1974L. Deighton Spy Story xx. 218 You're doing well, old son. 1974N. Freeling Dressing of Diamond 41 Right then, old son.
1912Collier's 28 Sept. 19/1 ‘Tough luck, old top,’ he muttered. 1915Wodehouse Something Fresh ii. 24, I say, Dickie, old top, I want to see you about something devilish important. 1932A. J. Worrall Eng. Idioms 56, I say, old top! Do you like these?
b.1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. i. ii. 49 What happie gale Blowes you to Padua heere, from old Verona? 1659D. Pell Impr. Sea 140, I may take upon mee to tell old England. 1732Berkeley Alciphr. ii. §7 Hath not old England subsisted for many ages without the help of your notions? 1785Burns Cotter's Sat. Nt. xix, From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs. 1808Scott Marm. vi. Introd. 68 Nor failed old Scotland to produce, At such high-tide, her savoury goose. 1844Alb. Smith Adv. Mr. Ledbury (1856) I. xii. 90 There's old Gravesend!
c. In trivial use with connotations of familiarity and in jocular and mildly disparaging senses of persons and things.
1898Westm. Gaz. 1 July 2/2 The lawyers in the House have had what..we may be allowed to call a high old time. 1905Smart Set Sept. 117/2 No one else is going to run off with your old car. 1913F. H. Burnett T. Tembarom xxxiv. 438 Whatever happens, you are both fixed all right... Whatever old thing happens. a1917E. A. Mackintosh War, the Liberator (1918) 91, I always wondered If our old barrage could Be half as bloody good As the Staff said it would. 1938M. K. Rawlings Yearling i. 3 ‘There'll come a little old drizzly rain before night⁓fall,’ he thought. 1942Z. N. Hurston in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 28/2, I had done..cooked you a great big old cake. 1945Tee Emm (Air Ministry) V. 38 Getting the ‘general impression’..to register in the old brain-box. 1949B. A. Botkin Treas. S. Folklore p. xx, It is a land where the word ‘old’—the Old South,..Old Man So-and-So, little old this-and-that—are terms of affection and pride. 1965J. Bingham Fragment of Fear iv. 49 ‘I have been successful.’..‘Good old you!’ 1971P. O'Donnell Impossible Virgin i. 12 When you look in poor old Tina's tum there's just a grotty old mish-mash of bits and pieces. 1971D. Francis Bonecrack viii. 101 ‘They didn't take my advice.’ ‘Silly old them.’
9. Applied to the devil,
a. orig. in reference to his primeval character; in OE. se ealda (= ‘the old one’); also in particular appellations, as old serpent, old dragon, old enemy, old adversary, etc.
a1000Leás. 32 (Grein) Se ealda. a1200Moral Ode 285 Belsebub þe ealde. c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 191 Þe alde neddre þe bipehte eue and adam. c1230Hali Meid. 15 Nu bihalt te alde feond. 1382Wyclif Rev. xx. 2 The olde serpent, that is the deuel. 1629Milton Nativity 168 Th' old Dragon under ground. 1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 10 Soyling their hellish carkasses with juyce..or what the old imposter infatuates them with. 1822Hogg Perils of Man III. 38 Cuffed about by the ‘auld thief’, as they styled him.
b. So in various jocose appellations, as the old one, the old gentleman (in black); old harry, nick, scratch, etc. Also the old boy (see boy n.1 6).
1668R. L'Estrange Vis. Quev. (1708) 84 They were all sent to Old Nick. 1700T. Brown Wks. (1760) III. 102, I know not who'll take em for saints, but the old gentleman in black. c1746Collier (Tim Bobbin) Gloss., Owd Harry, Owd Nick, names for the devil. 1762Smollett Sir L. Greaves ii. x, He must have sold himself to Old Scratch. 1785Burns Addr. to Deil i, O thou! whatever title suit thee, Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick, or Clootie. 1824Hist. Gaming Houses 51 He would not stick at playing up Old Harry in every possible shape and manner. 1825J. Neal Bro. Jonathan I. 253 His Master..the Old One. 1894Sir J. D. Astley 50 Years Life I. 213 The balls did whistle round like ‘old Billy’.
III. Belonging to an age or period now past away; ancient; former.
10. Of or pertaining to the distant past; belonging to antiquity or to a bygone age; ancient, bygone, olden. (Opposed to modern.)
c1000Ags. Gosp. Luke ix. 8 Sume sædon eald witeᵹa aras. c1000Ags. Ps. lxxvi. 5 (Gr.) Þa ic ealde daᵹas eft ᵹeþohte. a1067in Kemble Cod. Dipl. IV. 202 Swa he on ældum timum ᵹelæᵹd wæs. c1200Ormin 13724 Þatt alde follc Off Godess hallȝhe lede. c1205Lay. 2916 A þan holde dawen [c 1275 eolde daiȝe]. 1340Ayenb. 124 An ald filosofe þet hette platoun. 1382Wyclif Matt. v. 21 Ȝee han herde that it is said to olde men [1388 elde men, 1526 Tind. vnto them off the old tyme, 1611 by them of old time]. a1400Morte Arth. 13 Elders of alde tyme. c1425Lydg. Assembly of Gods 294 Olde poetys sey she bereth the heruest horne. 1590L. Lloyd Diall Daies 8 The old antient Romanes had..certaine ceremonies. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, i. ii. 56 The nine Sibyls of old Rome. 1635Swan Spec. M. ii. §3 (1643) 32 The old ancient order of the yeare. 1671Milton P.R. iii. 178 The Prophets old, who sung thy endless raign. 1728Pope Dunc. ii. 144 A shaggy Tap'stry, worthy to be spread On Codrus' old, or Dunton's modern bed. 1784Cowper Task v. 217 Tubal..the Vulcan of old times. 1809W. Irving Knickerb. vii. ix. (1820) 513 The customs and manners that prevailed in the ‘good old times’. 1842Tennyson Golden Year 65 Old writers push'd the happy season back.
b. Relating to past times: dealing with antiquity.
a900Cynewulf Crist 1396 Nu ic ða ealdan race anforlæte hu þu æt ærestan yfle ᵹehoᵹdes. c1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 1, In Saynt Bede bokes writen er stories olde. 1375Barbour Bruce i. 17 Aulde storys that men redys. 1667Milton P.L. xi. 386 Wherever stood City of old or modern Fame. 1820Shelley Œdipus i. 42 Grasshoppers that live on noonday dew, And sung, old annals tell, as sweetly too.
c. Proper to antiquity or a bygone age; of ancient character, form, or appearance; antique.
c1381Chaucer Parl. Foules 19 It happede me for to beholde Vp on a bok was wrete with letteris olde. 1573–80Baret Alv. O 69 Men curious in vsing old and ancient wordes..Antiquarii homines. 1601Shakes. Twel. N. ii. iv. 44 O fellow come, the song we had last night: Marke it Cesario, it is old and plaine. 1709Pope Ess. Crit. 324 Some by old words to fame have made pretence, Ancients in phrase. 1899Westm. Gaz. 11 May 4/2 What they call the old blue, the shade seen in old enamelling.
d. Associated with ancient times (esp. with classical antiquity); renowned in history; esp. in poetry, as an epithet with proper names.
c1631Milton Arcades 98 On old Lycæus or Cyllene hoar. 1710Pope Windsor For. 316 From old Belerium to the northern main. 1820Shelley Witch of Atlas lvii, To glide adown old Nilus, when he threads Egypt and æthiopia. 1845M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 10 It is the old historical lands of Europe that the lover of history longs to explore.
11. Belonging to an earlier period (of time, one's life, etc.) or to the earlier or earliest of two or more periods, times, or stages; pertaining to an earlier condition of things; possessed, occupied, practised, etc. at a former time. (Opposed to new.) See also old light(s light n. 6 d), old school (school n. 5 b), old tenor (tenor n.1 1 c).
a1000Phenix 321 Þonne he ᵹewiteð wongas secan his ealdne eard of þisse eþel-tyrf. a1000Elene 1266 (Gr.) ᵹeoᵹuð is ᵹecyrred, ald onmedla. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints ix. (Bertholomeus) 140 Mychtyly he put hym owte of his ald seinȝnery. 1508Dunbar Flyting 320 Thow..geris me..thair ald sin with new schame certify. 1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 93 He projects the recovery of his old Eparchy of Brampore. c1647Milton Sonn., On new Forcers Consc. 20 New Presbyter is but Old Priest writ Large. 1802Wordsworth Resol. & Indep. iii, The pleasant season did my heart employ: My old remembrances went from me wholly. 1842Tennyson Morte d'Arthur 240 The old order changeth, yielding place to new. 1893Max Müller Theosophy xii. (1899) 401 In order to bring his old Jewish belief into harmony with his new philosophical convictions.
b. That was or has been (the thing spoken of) at a former time.
1571Satir. Poems Ref. xxvii. 54 Ald feyis ar sindle faythfull freindis fund. 1647Galway Arch. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 496 Sherriffes and ould Sheriffes to goe in their blacke gownes. 1847–9Helps Friends in C. (1851) I. 2 Ellesmere the great lawyer, also an old pupil of mine. 1894Hall Caine Manxman iii. xix. 189 His old master, the college friend of his father.
c. Prefixed to the name of a language, to denote an early period in its history, or the earliest of several periods, preceding that usu. called middle (see middle a. 4 b), as in Old English (see English n. 1 b), Old Norse (see Norse n. 3), Old Prussian (see Old Prussian n. b). Abbrev. O (see O 5 b).
d. Prefixed to a n. or adj. to denote a former member of a particular institution or society, esp. a public school.
1824M. R. Mitford Our Village I. 147 One meets with an old Etonian, who retains his boyish love for that game [sc. cricket]. 1848C. H. Newmarch Recollections of Rugby i. 1 ‘Oh! mihi præteritos referat si Jupiter annos,’ is an exclamation, in which, remembering..a duck hunt at Swift's, every old Rugbæan will, I hope, most heartily concur. 1857Manx Sun 4 July in Geo. Eliot Lett. (1954) II. 337 The writer is a gentleman of our own acquaintance, an old Cantab. 1870Wellingtonian May 152 The above Match proved a very exciting one..inasmuch as it was only won by two wickets by the old Wellingtonians. 1892(title) Eton of old..by an Old Colleger. 1902S. A. Barnett in H. Barnett Canon Barnett (1918) II. xxxiv. 70 The ‘Old Northeyites’ has kept the educational side well in front. Ibid. 71 The ‘Old Dalgleishers’—whose special feature is the Easter expedition—enjoyed it for the eighth year in succession. 1914‘I. Hay’ Knight on Wheels (ed. 2) xviii. 172 Each happened to be wearing an Old Studleian tie, so common ground was established at once. 1920Galsworthy In Chancery i. iv. 42 He went out to dinner alone—an old Malburian [sic] dinner. 1936G. M. Young Victorian England xiv. 96 The Old Giggleswickian was not yet a named variety. 1964C. Mackenzie My Life & Times III. 52 Henry Cruft had been at Eton and then..sent to Shrewsbury. He still considered himself an Old Etonian. Ibid. 126 Cyril Bailey..was an Old Pauline who had left before I went to St Paul's in 1894. 1967V. Canning Python Project iii. 46 He..straightened his Old Etonian tie. 1970P. Dickinson Seals i. 11 His Old Etonian tie was knotted round a starched white collar. 1975Listener 6 Feb. 164/1 The son of an Army officer and an Old Harrovian.
12. Distinguishing the thing spoken of from something of the same kind newer or more recent: Of earlier date, prior in time or occurrence, former, previous. Old Year's Day, the last day of the old year.
c890O.E. Chron. an. 885 Se Hloþwiᵹ was Carles broþur..se Hloþwiᵹ was þæs aldan Carles sunu. c1175Lamb. Hom. 87 Þes dei..on þere alde laȝe. c1200Vices & Virtues 27 Oðer newe mone betere ðan æld-mone. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VII. 407 Al holy writt, þe elde [v.r. olde] testament and þe newe. c1460Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. ix. (1885) 128 Thai shulde than be vndir a Prince double so myghty as was thair old prince. 1548–9(Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Baptism, Graunte that the olde Adam..maye so be buried, that the newe man may be raised vp agayne. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. i. i. 4 Foure happy daies bring in Another Moon! but oh, me thinkes, how slow This old Moon wanes. 1611Bible Transl. Pref. 1 The making of a new Law for the abrogating of an old. 1671Milton P.R. iv. 278 All the schools Of Academics old and new. 1849Grote Greece ii. lxvii. (1862) VI. 34 The gradual transition of what is called the Old Comedy into the Middle and New Comedy. 1888Kipling Wee Willie Winkie (1889) 6 The idea that he shared a great secret..kept Wee Willie Winkie..virtuous for three weeks. Then the Old Adam broke out, and he made..a ‘camp-fire’ at the bottom of the garden. 1976Listener 26 Feb. 232/1 The best way to keep evil and the old Adam down was to flog the child.
b. With names of countries: Known or inhabited at an earlier period, as Old England (hence Old Englander), Old France, Old Spain (opposed to the American colonies of New England, France, Spain; now only hist.), and similarly in modern colonial use, the old country, old home = Great Britain; also applied to a (person's) country of origin other than Great Britain, spec. (occas. in pl.) to the countries of Europe, the ‘old world’; hence old-countryman; Old Commonwealth: Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (cf. New Commonwealth); the Old Dominion: see dominion 2 b; Old South, the southern states of the U.S. before the civil war of 1861–5; Old World, the Eastern Hemisphere, as opposed to the New World of America. (In Old England and the like, there is often a blending with this of sense 8.)
c1596Donne Poems (1912) I. 76 If you from spoyle of th'old worlds farthest end. 1647Ward Simp. Cobler 43 Hee that prizes not Old England Graces, as much as New England Ordinances. 1755N. Magens Insurances I. 393 W. H. Master of the Ship called St. George, belonging to London in old England. 1763Ann. Reg. 121 Bills of exchange drawn by the government of Canada on that of Old France. 1780Ibid. 213 Newly arrived from Old Spain. 1782‘J. H. St. John de Crèvecœur’ Lett. from Amer. Farmer i. 3 A person who hath been to Paris,..and who hath seen so many fine things up and down the old countries. 1796F. Baily Jrnl. Tour N. Amer. 25 Dec. (1856) 172 The scenery..so very different from what we had been used to in the old country. 1812Examiner 28 Dec. 826/1 General Miranda had sailed..for Old Spain. 1817J. Bradbury Trav. Amer. 321 It gives them an opportunity of making enquiries respecting the ‘old country’. 1828Amer. Q. Rev. IV. 211 Even the illiterate in our country will distinguish an Englishman by his pronunciation, and will designate him as an ‘old countryman’. 1837H. Martineau Soc. Amer. III. 95 They are readers: their imaginations live in the Old World. 1840Southern Lit. Messenger VI. 241/1 More of Old England is left in the hearts of the Old Dominion than in all the states beside, save [etc.]. 1844Mrs. Houston Yacht Voy. Texas II. 127 Farming details which apply..to practice in the ‘Old Country’. 1848Bartlett Dict. Amer. 239 Old Countryman, a native of England, Scotland, Ireland, or Wales. 1873Harper's Mag. July 271/1 Never in her most boastful days did the old South, under her cherished system of slave labor, produce better crops. 1884Boston Jrnl. 30 Dec. 2/4 Our goods are crossing the water to keep alive old England. 1886Lowell Wks. (1890) VI. 143 It [the founding of Harvard] insured our intellectual independence of the Old World. Ibid. 156 The more conservative universities of the Old Home. 1898J. D. Brayshaw Slum Silhouettes 8 Loudly declaiming..about the injustice done to ‘the ould counthry’, and forcibly giving vent to his views upon ‘Home Rule’. 1927M. M. Bennett Christison xiv. 133 In 1877, twenty-five years after he had sailed from Liverpool for Victoria, Christison left Australia to visit the Old Country. 1947E. A. McCourt Flaming Hour vi. 32 In the old country..there would be spinach, brussels sprouts, artichokes. 1950W. L. James in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 431/2 It was those cries which Negroes made famous in the Old South. 1965New Society 26 Aug. 18/1 The ‘old’ Commonwealth consists of Canada, Australia and New Zealand; the ‘new’ Commonwealth includes all remaining Commonwealth countries. 1966B. H. Deal Fancy's Knell (1967) ii. 26 Bill was Old South and Mildred wasn't. 1973Guardian 26 Jan. 1/2 The rules as drafted would lead to unacceptable treatment of people from the Old Commonwealth. 1973Sunday Bulletin (Philadelphia) (Discovery Suppl.) 14 Oct. 17/2 People referred to Europe (or any nation therein) as ‘the old country’. 1975Listener 29 May 692/2 We now see not just the African Commonwealth, but also the Old Commonwealth and the Asian Commonwealth, beginning to make their own direct links with the Community. 1975A. Price Our Man in Camelot i. 25 There was much more of the Old South in Shirley's voice.
c. old style: see style. Old Christmas Day, Old Christmas Eve, Old Lady Day, Old May-day, Old Michaelmas-day, Old Midsummer, etc., these days or times according to the computation of old style.
1783W. Owen New Bk. of Fairs 14 Friday before Old Michaelmas, meeting by custom for horned cattle. Ibid. 65 Monday before Old Midsummer July 5, for sheep and horned cattle. Ibid. 70 Monday before Old Lady Day, for broad and narrow cloths, and leather. 1825Hone Every-day Bk. 1324 September 26..Old Holyrood. 1826Ibid. II. 659 A festival called Beltane..annually held in Scotland on old May-day. Ibid. 1315 October 11. This is ‘Old Michaelmas Day’. 1861Times 16 Feb., The old style is still retained in the accounts of Her Majesty's Treasury... The first day of the financial year is the 5th of April, being old Lady Day. 1863Book of Days I. 58 January 6 Epiphany or Twelfth Day (Old Christmas Day). Ibid. 52/2 Auld Hansel Monday, i.e. Handsel Monday old style, or the first Monday after the 12th of the month [January]. 1931Sun (Baltimore) 7 Jan. 7/2 In the church calendar the day is known as Epiphany and in England as Twelfth Night, but among the Colonists it was known as ‘Little Christmas’ or ‘Old Christmas’, deriving the name from the fact that when the calendar was changed centuries ago an error was made. 1935Evening Sun (Baltimore) 5 Jan. 18/3 On Old Christmas Eve, tomorrow night, daffodils, hops and elders are supposed to shoot mysterious sprouts through snow and frozen ground. 1948Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch 8 Jan. 26/1 In Rodanthe, N.C., and probably in some other remote places, ‘Old Christmas’ is observed on January 5. 1956Sun (Baltimore) 5 Jan. 3/2 Why residents of the Outer Banks celebrate Epiphany or Old Christmas, as well as December 25..is something lost in antiquity. 1969in Halpert & Story Christmas Mumming in Newfoundland 176 From before Christmas till Old Christmas Day called Twelfth Day, they held high carnival.
d. old days (or old times): past times; freq. in phr. good (or bad) old days (or times).
1828Oscotian (ed. 2) I. 1 However glorious those ‘good old times’ may have been, they still were destitute of one very important advantage. 1856Geo. Eliot in Westm. Rev. X. 55 The aristocratic dilettantism which attempts to restore the ‘good old times’ by a sort of idyllic masquerading. 1898G. B. Shaw Mrs. Warren's Profession ii. 197 Suppose we were both as poor as you were in those wretched old days. 1906Nature 3 May (Suppl.) p. vii/2 In writing of times that are past and gone, while still within our recollection, we have all to be on our guard against a popular illusion as to the ‘good old days’. 1911G. B. Shaw Getting Married 261, I felt that I had left the follies and puerilities of the old days behind me for ever. 1932H. E. Williams in N. Hodgins Some Canadian Essays 225 While museums exemplify the distances that we have travelled since ‘the good old days’, they are not the best place in which to extract the old-time flavour. 1935Discovery Jan. 29/2 Even in the bad old days, however, there are some things on which Canada may well pride herself. 1950E. H. Gombrich Story of Art xxv. 379 There was one thing to be said for the ‘good old days’—no artist need ask himself why he had come into the world at all. 1958A. Huxley Brave New World Revisited (1959) 27 In the bad old days children with considerable, or even with slight, hereditary defects rarely survived. 1973Archivum Linguisticum IV. 90 Associated with ‘the old days’, that is with the Rana regime.
e. old ice: in polar regions, ice formed before the most recent winter; similarly old snow (see quots. 1952, 1966).
1856E. K. Kane Arctic Explorations I. xii. 128 Fissures..were beginning to break in every direction through the young ice... I therefore made for the old ice to seaward. 1885Encycl. Brit. XIX. 328/1 Old ice is believed to become thicker in a second winter, and even to attain a thickness of 10 feet. 1935Handbk. Weather, Currents & Ice (Meteorol. Office) vii. 102 The Arctic peak consists of old ice, which due to rafting and hummocking forms massive fields. 1952Jrnl. Glaciology II. 150 The definition of firn, adopted by the Eidg. Institut für Schnee- und Lawinenforschung, and included in the latest ‘Draft on an International Snow Classification’ suggested by the Committee on Snow Classification of International Association of Scientific Hydrology, is as follows: ‘old snow which has outlasted one summer at least (transformed into a dense heavy material as a result of frequent melting and freezing)’. 1966T. Armstrong et al. Illustr. Gloss. Snow & Ice 30 Old snow, deposited snow whose transformation into firn is so far advanced that the original form of the ice crystals can no longer be recognized.
f. old quantum theory: see quantum theory; old red sandstone: see sandstone.
g. Of a coinage: designating a former monetary unit that has been replaced by a new one with the same name (see new a. 4).
The French old franc was replaced in 1960; in Britain ‘new’ decimal currency was introduced in 1971.
1959Times 10 Nov. 10/6 The new ‘heavy franc’, which is worth 100 old francs, is to become legal currency on January 1 next year. 1965R. Ferguson Woman with Secret x. 76 She left me 40,000 francs. Old francs. 1969Times 21 July (Decimal Currency Suppl.) p. 1/5 Below 5p the only old coin which will be an exact equivalent of the new will be sixpence (2½p). Ibid. 6 The ½p coin being smaller than the old farthing..will be universally unpopular. 1972D. Lees Zodiac 46 That's over four thousand dollars..more than two million old francs. 1974L. Thomas Tropic of Ruislip ix. 178 ‘Blimey,’ she said. ‘There's one of the old pennies in here. That's not yours, is it?’ ‘No,’ he answered. ‘I cashed all my old ones in.’ 1976Listener 8 Apr. 430/2 Gary was born on 5 April 1966... In those pre-decimal days, you could buy a loaf of bread for 15 old pennies.
†C. adv. In ancient times, long ago. rare—1.
1608Shakes. Per. i. Prol. 1 To sing a Song that old was sung, From ashes, auntient Gower is come.
D. n.1 (elliptical uses of the adj.)
†1. = Old man, old woman. Obs.
c1375Sc. Leg. Saints iii. (Andreas) 155 Sa suld þat ald his penance mak. Ibid. xviii. (Egipciane) 326, & to þat auld þane sad scho rathe. 1426Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 13113 O, thow Olde! what hastow do, Vnwarly me to smyte so? 1513Douglas æneis ii. ix. [x.] 34 Scho..Him towart hir hes brocht..And sete the auld doun in the haly sete. c1532Crt. of Loue 280 What doth this olde Thus far ystope in yeres?
2. pl. (olds). Old ones (of a set or class); old persons, etc. mod. colloq.
1883Besant All in a Garden fair ii. vii. (1885) 167 Young clever people..are more difficult to catch than the olds. 1890Pall Mall G. 30 Aug. 2/2 Although the ‘Olds’ have been the pioneers..of the movement, the ‘Youngs’ show an impatience with them at every meeting.
3. pl. (olds). Hops more than two and less than four years old. old olds, hops more than four years old.
1892Daily News 22 Mar. 7/4 Old olds are still selling. 1898Ibid. 25 June 7/7 Some few transactions are taking place in yearlings and olds.
b. sing. A type of ale noted for its strength. Hence old and mild, a combination of old and mild ale in equal parts.
1904A. Makins Licensed Victuallers' Handbk. xiv. 224 The number of different kinds of malt liquors now produced are not numerous... ‘Bitter’, ‘Stout’, ‘Mild’, and ‘Old’ (usually called by the public ‘Burton’). 1923Month July 37 A glass of ‘owd’ (old ale) is his only inspiration. 1930A. P. Herbert Water Gipsies xxiii. 341 The total price of two mild and bitters, one old and mild, two small ports. 1932L. Golding Magnolia St. i. iii. 56 Two quarts of old, please! 1933A. G. Macdonell England, Their England vii. 105 The row of gaffers on the rustic bench..called for more pints of old-and-mild. 1957J. Braine Room at Top xx. 177 I'd had two pints of old at the St. Clair. 1967A. Bailey in L. Deighton London Dossier 66 Try Burton, sometimes called ‘Old’{ddd}a strong, dark and sweet draught beer..often mixed in the glass with mild ale when it becomes..known as ‘Old and Mild’. 1974Guardian 19 Jan. 11/1 In the tap-room..I encountered..a most impressive Old which is in effect a draught barley wine.
4. = Old time, the olden time; an earlier time or period: = eld 5. Chiefly in men, times, days, etc. of old.
c1400Destr. Troy 10503 He has..desyred my doghter to wed, Pollexena the pert, by purpos of olde. 1535Coverdale Ps. lxxvi[i.]. 5 Then remembred I the tymes of olde, & the yeares that were past. c1586C'tess Pembroke Ps. lxxvii. iv, I fell to thinck..Upon the yeares of old. 1635N. R. Camden's Hist. Eliz. i. an. ii. 7 Apparrelled in blacke after the manner of old. 1784Cowper Ep. Joseph Hill 58 Some few that I have known in days of old. 1845M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 10 France..is..rich beyond all others in the traces of the men of old.
b. Advb. phrase. of old: of old time, in the olden time, long since, formerly; also, From old days, for a long time (preceding the present).
c1386Chaucer Friar's T. 317 Pay me quod he..ffor dette which that thou owest me of old. 1423Rolls of Parlt. IV. 406/1 Ye verray and trewe makyng of old used and continued. 1478J. Paston in P. Lett. III. 219, I am aqueyntyd with your condycyons of old. 1535Stewart Cron. Scot. I. 4 Intill ane place callit Ecolumkill,..Lang of the ald thair wes thair sepultuir. 1599Shakes. Much Ado i. i. 146 You alwaies end with a Iades tricke, I know you of old. 1655Milton Sonn., Massacre Piedmont, Who kept thy truth so pure of old. 1774J. Bryant Mythol. I. 97 It was the..sacred place, where of old the everlasting fire was preserved. 1871R. Ellis Catullus i. 4 You of old did hold them Something worthy.
E. Old- in Comb.
1. a. With another adj., in antithetic or consequential relation, as † old cool, † old-excellent; old-new, old-young. b. With a pr. pple., forming an adj., as old-growing (growing old), old-looking. c. With a pa. pple., in advb. sense ‘of old, long, anciently’, as old-acquainted, old-branded, old-built, old-cut, old-established, old-gathered, old-landed, old-licensed, old-said adjs.
1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. ii. 20 This night I hold an *old accustom'd Feast.
1535Cranmer Let. to Dean of Chapel Royal in Misc. Writ. (Parker Soc.) II. 309 My *old acquainted friend, Master Shaxton.
1716Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Lady ― 16 Aug., This is a very large town, but most part of it *old built.
1607Tourneur Rev. Trag. i. ii. Wks. 1878 II. 16 O what it is to haue a *old-coole Duke.
1601Chester Love's Mart. cxvii, Those carued *old-cut stonie Images.
1785Daily Universal Reg. 1 Jan. 3/2 The following articles, in Silver, at the *Old established Wholesale Prices. 1787Bentham Def. Usury xiii. 141 Old-established trades. 1898Westm. Gaz. 2 Apr. 6/1 Some of the older-established jobbers refuse to deal for cash at all. 1961New Eng. Bible Matt. xv. 2 Why do your disciples break the old-established tradition?
1602F. Herring Anatomyes 5 In the knowledge of Plants they are *old excellent. 1643Trapp Comm. Gen. xii. 1 Abraham was old-excellent at it [self-denial].
a1586Sidney Arcadia i. Wks. 1725 I. 61 According to the nature of the *old-growing world.
1824Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 124 Apart from his *old-looking younger brother. 1837Blackw. Mag. XLII. 235 All the oldest looking, shrivelled oak-apples.
1530Palsgr. 250/1 *Ould sayd sawe, prouerbe. c1570Marr. Wit & Science v. i. in Hazl. Dodsley II. 379 An old-said saw it is..Soon hot, soon cold. 1828Craven Gloss. (ed. 2) s.v., It's an oud said say, and a true yan.
1834‘Nimrod’ in New Sporting Mag. VIII. 82 There stood before me, a round-shouldered, decrepid, tottering *old-young man. 1907Daily Chron. 8 July 3/3 Liverpool..the old-young city. 1932V. Woolf Common Reader 2nd Ser. 130 A ‘round-shouldered, tottering old-young man bloated by drink’. 1951Dylan Thomas Lett. (1966) 352 These old-young men are shipped back also, packed full with shame and penicillin. 1959N. Mailer Advts. for Myself (1961) 21 The colourful old-young men of American letters. 1974J. Mann Sticking Place v. 83 She was not a girl at all, on close inspection..but an old-young woman.
2. Parasynthetic combinations:
a. general, as old-aged (of old age, aged), old-blooded (having old blood), old-branched, old-faced, old-hearted, old-phrased, old-sighted, etc., adjs.; hence old-sightedness (= presbyopia).
b. based on some recognized phrase, as old-bachelorish (having the character associated with an ‘old bachelor’), old-boyish (of the nature of an ‘old boy’); so old-boyishness, old-boy-like, old-cattish, old-fogydom, old-fogyish, old-gentlemanly, old-masterish, old-masterly, etc., adjs.; old-bachelorship, old-fellowhood (the status of an ‘old fellow’, e.g. of a college), old-fogyism, old-ladyhood, old-liner (one of the ‘old line’), old-lorist, old-masterishness, old soldierism (the conduct of an ‘old soldier’), etc., ns. See also derivatives of old maid, old woman, etc.
1581Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 31 *Olde-aged experience goeth beyond the fine-witted Phylosopher.
1824Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 198 Every thing was..so provokingly in order, so full of naked nicety, so thoroughly *old-bachelorish. 1832Ibid. Ser. v. 346 Every female present..prophesied old-bachelorship and all its evils, to the contrivers and performers.
1894H. Nisbet Bush Girl's Rom. 218 The hauteur..that woke in his proud, *old-blooded breast.
1846Mrs. Gore Sk. Eng. Char. (1852) 143 The curious weazened *old-boyish air of this..race of men.
1850Punch 3 Aug. 52/1 There is a jolly-buckism or an *old-boyishness about the concern.
1597Drayton Mortimeriados 25 A Forrest of *old-branched Oakes.
1780F. Burney Diary (1842) I. 303 Don't I begin to talk in an *old-cattish manner of cards?
1595Shakes. John ii. i. 259 'Tis not the rounder of your *old-fac'd walles, Can hide you from our messengers of Warre.
1848Thackeray Van. Fair lviii, He had now passed into the stage of *old fellowhood. His hair was grizzled.
c1905F. Rolfe Nicholas Crabbe (1958) xxvii. 188 Exasperate and purulent *oldfogeydom. 1920T. P. Nunn Education xii. 147 At that age..old fogeydom already lays his hand on most of us, little as we may expect it.
a1877in Bartlett Dict. Amer. (1877) (ed. 4) 437 He's slow and rather *old-fogyish. 1883A. Forbes in 19th Cent. Oct. 722 The full side-face whiskers, which of late are becoming old-fogeyish.
1869Daily News 30 Jan., [The Quarterly Review] never falls..into tradition, routine, or *old-fogyism.
1819Byron Juan i. ccxvi, A good *old-gentlemanly vice.
1888Lady 25 Oct. 374/3 Caps,..charmingly suggestive of pretty *old-ladyhood.
1855Richmond (Virginia) Whig 15 Mar. 1/1 Endorsed thus by two ‘*old liners’, he was most cordially received. 1884Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 25 Sept. 2/2 The old-liners appear to be out of the fight. 1903N.Y. Even. Post 31 Oct. 5 The old-liners quietly backbite him for taking up a ‘fanatic’ like Johnson. 1908R. W. Chambers Firing Line xxix. 493, I didn't expect any cordiality..but..they classed us with the old-liners.
1880Academy 14 Aug. 123 So solid and careful an *old-lorist.
1925A. Huxley Those Barren Leaves i. ii. 14 One of those large, handsome, *old-masterish women. 1961Listener 16 Nov. 822/3 There are no ‘properties’, no old-masterish bits and pieces, to keep the thing going.
1937Burlington Mag. Mar. 137/1 The same contempt for ‘*old masterishness’ and its devotees.
1882Athenæum No. 2866. 439 This dignified and, if the term be allowed, *old-masterly work. 1968S. Hynes Edwardian Turn of Mind ix. 317 A taste in painting that was neither Old Masterly..nor academic.
1911H. S. Harrison Queed xxii. 276, I think *old-soldierism is the meanest profession the Lord ever suffered to thrive.
1886J. Corbett Fall of Asgard II. 178 He listened to him telling of..his *old-phrased oaths.
3. With a n. (or adj. used absol.), forming an attrib. phrase, as old-book, old-country, old-home, old-issue, old-ivory, old-life, old-line (following the old lines), Old Line State (Maryland), old-master, old-Roman, old-school, old-service, old-standard, old-town, old-wave, old-year, etc. See also old-time, old-world.
1862Burton Bk. Hunter i. 25 In the *old-book trade there are opportunities for the exercise of ingenuity. a1902Mod. A well-known frequenter of the old-book shops.
1890Tablet 21 June 981 Grooms in *old-day livery.
1928Blunden Undertones of War xvii. 177 Flinging *old-home repartee at your pal passing by. 1959Word XV. 147 Langer gives a considerable number of examples of old-home expressions which were lost and replaced.
1879A. W. Tourgée Fool's Errand xvii. 87 Robert..was..an ‘*old-issue free nigger’ (freed before the war). 1899C. W. Chesnutt Wife of his Youth 214 Wright came of an ‘old issue’ free colored family, in which though negro blood was present in an attenuated strain, a line of free ancestry could be traced beyond the Revolutionary War.
1898Daily News 2 Dec. 5/1 There is one book exhibited, which..has put on a true *old-ivory tone.
1863A. C. Ramsay Phys. Geog. 51 That Palaeozoic or *old-life period. 1897Outing (U.S.) XXX. 354/2 The return to the old-life routine.
1856Congress. Globe 9 Jan. 180/3 Have they offered us one of my colleagues, an *old-line Whig? 1908R. W. Chambers Firing Line xxi. 353 I'm in an old-line institution. 1928F. Scott Fitzgerald Let. 1 Feb. (1964) 383, I rode..with the president of a very prominent club, not my own, a Princetonian of the rather old-line, conservative, very gentlemanly type. 1949Sun (Baltimore) 7 Sept. 12/4 Mr. Taft's mental and moral force has been a reservoir of strength to the old-line men. 1958Spectator 20 June 791/3 In spite of his reputation as an old-line Stalinist, Suslov supported Krushchev. 1962R. Tyre Douglas in Saskatchewan v. 78 The Socialists had high hopes of winning the 1934 election but the farmers were not quite ready yet to abandon their traditional support of the old line parties. 1973Deb. Senate Canada 28 Mar. 2710/1 The two old-line parties are afraid of treading on the toes of the financial institutions.
1872Schele de Vere Americanisms xii. 660 Maryland bears the proud title of *Old-line State from the Old-Line regiments which she contributed to the Continental Army in the War of the Revolution—the only State that had regular troops of ‘the line’. 1948Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 604 Maryland Free State{ddd}has overshadowed all the old nicknames..including Old Line State and Terrapin State.
1950D. Gascoyne Vagrant 56 Though that's what this *old-master lute-master opines. 1959Times 19 Mar. 4/3 Still⁓life studies combining an old-master flavour with a slightly surrealist inclination.
1831Carlyle Sart. Res. i. vii, *Old-Roman contempt of the superfluous.
1886N. Amer. Rev. July 19 Adam, according to this *old-school Calvinism, was the Federal Head, the representative of his race.
1894Westm. Gaz. 19 Apr. 6/2 One of the few remaining *old-service gaolers.
1838J. F. Cooper Home as Found I. x. 163 That is the First Presbyterian, or the *old standard [church]; a very good house.
1962Listener 30 Aug. 315/1 This reaction has not come from *Old Wave film makers. 1967Observer 26 Feb. 21/3 All the addicts were middle-aged{ddd}typical old-wave addicts. But what of the new ones?
1897R. M. Stuart In Simpkinsville i. 14 They got him to come to the old year party one year, jest for the fun of it.
4. Special combs. and phrases: old bach (see bach n. 1); Old Baptist, Old Christian (church) U.S., names of religious denominations; old-bone v., to manure with old bones; † old boy, a kind of strong ale; old-ˈclothes-man, a dealer in old or second-hand clothes; old-ˈclothes-shop, a shop for the sale of old clothes; old contemptible: see contemptible a. 4; old crock (see crock n.3 4); old firm, a group of friends or associates (cf. firm n.1 2 c); old gang colloq., a group or clique of friends or colleagues, esp. politicians, accustomed to supporting each other in matters of business or policy; old gentleman: see 9 b, also quot.; Old Glory U.S., the ‘Stars and Stripes’; † old-grey [grey n. 5], old man, greybeard; old guard (see guard n. 9 b); old hand, (a) one who has been long employed or has experience in any business, one who is skilful in doing something (see hand n. 9); (b) one who has been a convict; also attrib.; old holder (see quot.); old home week U.S. (see quot. 1904); Old Kingdom, a name given collectively (a) to the Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Dynasties, which ruled Egypt from the 27th to the 22nd century b.c.; (b) to a period of Hittite history extending from the 18th to the 16th century b.c.; old lady, collectors' name for a species of moth, Mania maura; old-like a., old in appearance (obs. exc. Sc. and dial.); old master U.S., the former master of a (Negro) slave; also old mistress (see also ole, ol' a.); old money, old-established wealth; old offender, an habitual criminal; old religion, a religion or belief which is replaced or ousted by another, spec. (a) a pre-Christian religion; paganism; (b) witchcraft; (c) Roman Catholicism; old-rich, those whose wealth is old-established, opp. new rich (new a. 8 d); also attrib. or as adj.; Old Ritualist [tr. Russ. staroobryádets] = Old Believer; old rope slang (orig. Naval), rank tobacco; old settler [settler 2], one of the earliest settlers in a community; old ship Naval slang, an old shipmate; † old-sir, old-sire, an old man, an aged sire; old sledge, a game at cards = all fours1; old soldier v., to ‘come the old soldier over’: see soldier n. (colloq.); n. U.S. slang, the remaining part of a smoked cigar or chewed quid; also, an empty liquor bottle (Webster 1909); old sow, the plant Melilotus cærulea (sweet trefoil), also a local name of Antennaria margaritacea (pearl cudweed) (Britten & H.); old-spelling, the unstandardized early spelling of English; old squaw the long-tailed duck, Clangula hyemalis; = long-tail 1 b, old wife 2; also attrib.; old-standing a., that has stood or existed long, long-standing; old style a., belonging to the old style, old-fashioned; Typog., one of a group of type-faces first produced in the 19th century and modelled on the 18th-century old-face fount cast at the Caslon foundry; also attrib.; cf. Caslon, old-face; old sweat slang, an old soldier; old thing Austral. (see quots.); old Thirteen U.S., the original thirteen American colonies, which declared their independence in 1776; also, the original ‘Stars and Stripes’, a flag with thirteen stars and thirteen stripes; Old Tom, a kind of strong gin; old witch, a children's game; old witch-grass, a North American panic grass, Panicum capillare.
1845A. Wiley in Indiana Mag. Hist. (1927) XXIII. 18, I see nothing awaiting the ‘*old Baptist’ churches but utter annihilation. 1889P. Butler Personal Recoll. 252 ‘Hardshell’ Baptists..wish to be known as Old Baptists, or United Baptists.
1849Johnston Exper. Agric. 57 On the *old-boned field, the crop was four times as bulky as on the unboned field. Ibid., This old-boning caused a large increase both in the turnip and in the corn crops.
1743Lond. & Country Brew. iv. (ed. 2) 289 Then add to the same new Drinks, with their Sediments, and call it *Old-boy, Stout, or Nog.
1849E. Chamberlain Indiana Gazetteer (ed. 3) 175 Presbyterians, Methodists, United Brethren, Christian,..*Old Christian, (or new Light) and Baptists.
1782Wolcott (P. Pindar) 2nd Ode to R.A.'s, Like an *Old-clothes-Man about London Street! 1834Chambers's Edin. Jrnl. III. 141/1, I feel convinced that these old-clothes-men only address persons of gentlemanly appearance. 1968N.Y. City (Michelin Tire Corp.) 82 The dark smoke-filled bars which alternate with old-clothes dealers along the street.. shopkeepers..tailors and old-clothes men.
1781C. Johnston Hist. J. Juniper II. 252 The actor went to dress at his usual wardrobe, an *old-clothes shop. 1851A. O. Hall Manhattaner 6 Groups of old clo' shops, gaudily set forth with parti-colored handkerchiefs.
1930A. P. Herbert Water Gipsies vii. 72 Five shillings each way... Don't desert the *Old Firm! 1935D. L. Sayers Gaudy Night iv. 64 If you ever want me, you will find the Old Firm at the usual stand. 1975‘D. Jordan’ Black Account xiii. 66 ‘Always happy to help the Old Firm,’ he declared.
1885J. Chamberlain in J. R. Ware Passing Eng. (1909) 187/1 In deference to his [sc. Lord Randolph Churchill's] opinion, there will no doubt be a clearance out of some of those whom the Fourth Party is in the habit of politely designating as the ‘*Old Gang’. 1889Judge (N.Y.) XV. 368/1 Yankee Doodle came to town Astride his thorough⁓bred. He met the old gang going out With Grover at their head. 1891G. B. Shaw How to become Mus. Critic (1960) 195 Mr Chappell has at last awakened to the fact that his stock players were becoming what vestry politicians call an old gang. 1900― Let. 4 Mar. (1972) II. 150 In excited times nominations are apt to be made freely; and what happens then is that though the old gang is pretty safe, the other seats go anyhow. 1901Punch 3 Apr. 250/2 There is so much favoritism that only the Old Gang and Rank Outsiders get chosen. 1916Mrs. Belloc Lowndes Let. 8 Dec. (1971) 78 Violet Markham thinks L.G. will last out a good while but that all ‘the Old Gang’ as people are beginning to call them, will gradually crystallise into a Peace Party. 1933Wyndham Lewis Old Gang & New Gang 9 Every morning when Mr. Everyman opens his newspaper he reads about the doings of the ‘Old Gang’—or rather about their non-doing and non-caring. 1934G. G. Coulton in S.P.E. Tract XLIII. 103 Within six years he [sc. Hart] had gathered eleven colleagues whom, at a much later prize-giving, he affectionately described as ‘the Old Gang’, and of whom Fowler was one. 1940H. Nicolson Let. 6 June (1967) 94 There is a growing feeling against what is called ‘the old gang’... The men who have come back from the front feel that Kingsley Wood and Inskip let them down and must go. 1961R. Hoggart W. H. Auden: a Selection 24 A feeling that ‘the old gang’ were always hopelessly out of touch and wrong. 1964C. Barber Ling. Change Present-Day Eng. ii. 26 A rejection of Old Gang politics,..general resentment at the Establishment.
1828G. Smeeton Doings in London 77 An ‘*old gentleman’ (a card somewhat larger and thicker than the rest of the pack, and now in considerable use amongst the ‘legs’).
1862W. Driver in Salem (Mass.) Reg. 10 Mar. 2, I carried my flag, ‘*Old Glory’, as we have been used to call it, to the Capitol, presented it to the Ohio 6th. 1930J. Dos Passos 42nd Parallel ii. 153 They wrapped me in the Stars and Stripes and brought me home on a frigate to be buried..I was wrapped in Old Glory. 1973Sat. Rev. World (U.S.) 4 Dec. 16/2 The right to substitute the peace symbol for the stars in Old Glory. 1975Times 15 Apr. 6/7 Come what may, the American Ambassador to Saigon..will be rescued by the Marines, with the ‘Old Glory’ flag rolled in his arms.
1582Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 64 Hee rested wylful lyk a wayward obstinat *oldgrey.
1785Grose Dict. Vulg. T., *Old hand, knowing or expert in any business. 1845C. Griffith Present State of Port Philip 76 The old hands are men, who, having been formerly convicts..have become free by the expiration of their sentences. 1848Dickens Dombey xii, Toots, as an old hand, had a desk to himself. 1857R. B. Paul Lett. from Canterbury, N.Z. ii. 26 Only enter the dwelling of the roughest ‘old hand’ among us, and you will meet with..much kindness. 1865Tucker Austral. Story i. 85 Reformed convicts, or, in the language of their proverbial cant, ‘old hands’. 1865Nixon Peter Perfume 102 ‘Bosh⁓man’, in the old-hand vernacular, signifies a fiddler. 1911C. E. W. Bean ‘Dreadnought’ of Darling xxxii. 283 Lots of these fellows near Bourke were ‘old hands’. Some of them were decent, good fellows, and the rest—well, they were horrible—the blackest, unmitigated rascals, fearing neither God nor the devil, men who would stick at nothing. 1946K. Tennant Lost Heaven (1947) 1 On one side is Limeburners', where the ‘old hands’ used to pound oyster shells for lime.
1810Sporting Mag. XXXVI. 21 The defendants who have designated themselves as *old-holders—copyholders..who pay one heriot only, though they hold several messuages.
1904Boston Herald 2 Aug. 6 In..Massachusetts this first week in August is being observed as *Old Home Week, and preparations have been made for welcoming back..visitors who return to their native, or earlier, home to renew acquaintance with former scenes and companions. 1949T. Rattigan Harlequinade 63 What with Mums in front and babies in the wings it's not so much a dress rehearsal as old home week. 1973‘I. Drummond’ Jaws of Watchdog i. 11 He and Jenny embraced warmly. ‘Old home week,’ said the Princess sourly.
1905J. H. Breasted Egypt through Stereoscope 22 With the accession of the 3rd Dynasty..we see Egypt rising into her first great period of power and prosperity, which we call the *Old Kingdom. Ibid. 143 The king who made the sphinx must have dismantled some Old Kingdom mastabas to clear the rock. 1910Encycl. Brit. IX. 39/1 A valuable stele from Sakkara of the beginning of the Old Kingdom was presented to the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford in 1683. 1928C. Dawson Age of Gods vii. 151 We must be prepared to allow for a margin of error of more than 800 years in dealing with..the Old Kingdom of Egypt. 1938E. M. Sanford Mediterranean World in Anc. Times i. 55 The foundation of the united Old Kingdom of the Hittites was delayed by the rivalry of individual states. 1952O. R. Gurney Hittites i. 25 Telipinus is usually regarded as the last king of the Old Kingdom. 1961A. H. Gardiner Egypt of Pharaohs i. iv. 60 Our evidence for the Old Kingdom is purely archaeological. 1973R. J. Williams in D. J. Wiseman Peoples Old Testament Times iv. 83 Great advances were made in medicine, which reached heights in the Old Kingdom never surpassed in ancient Egypt. 1974Encycl. Brit. Macropædia VI. 465/1 There is good reason to regard this king [sc. Khasekhemui] as the founder of the Old Kingdom.
1832Rennie Butterflies & Moths 99 The *Old Lady appears the end of July or beginning of August.
1634W. Tirwhyt tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. I.) 34 It is one more *old-like than his Father, and as over-worne as a ship. 1855Robinson Whitby Gloss., And like, looking old. ‘He is beginning to grow varry aud like’.
1872S. Powers Afoot & Alone 61 Negroes everywhere..seemed to think they were not free unless they left the *old master. 1892‘Mark Twain’ Amer. Claimant viii. 81 When a bell ring..en old marster tell me to―. 1949B. A. Botkin Treas. S. Folklore i. iii. 58 The chief protagonist and antagonist of master–slave folklore are Old Massa and Old John.
1859D. D. Emmett Dixie's Land (song) (1960), *Old missus marry Will de Weaber... Here's a health to de next old missus. 1874‘Mark Twain’ in Atlantic Monthly Nov. 592/1 Well, bymeby my ole mistis say she's broke.
1963Times 25 Feb. (Canada Suppl.) p. xv/3 Having noted that the Canadian rich, particularly the *old-money rich, tend to dwell among exquisite eighteenth-century chattels, the poorer folk aspire to antiques themselves. 1966‘D. Shannon’ With a Vengeance i. 22 There's a lot o' money—kind of substantial old money, you know—her husband was a banker. 1967L. J. Braun Cat who ate Danish Modern ii. 18 People with Old Money always avoid publicity on their real estate.
18172nd Rep. Comm. State of Police of Metrop. 329 in Parl. Papers VII. 321 The greater part of these Juvenile Offenders,..are mixed indiscriminately with *old offenders of all ages. 1890W. Booth In Darkest Eng. ii. v. 177 C.M. Old offender, and penal servitude case. 1970P. Laurie Scotland Yard x. 263 If he is an old offender, the threat failed to deter him.
1848W. D. Cooley tr. Erman's Trav. in Siberia II. xii. 306 The Bugoi of the Buraets of the *old religion, maintain that they know..how to deal with certain mischievous spirits. 1934A. Huxley Beyond Mexique Bay 159 The old religion came..boldly out into the open in 1745. 1964Listener 12 Mar. 445/3, I am glad to see that the witch-religion is becoming so respectable... Jean Morris..now proposes..that the Templars were of the ‘old religion’. 1967D. Pinner Ritual x. 106 If the Old Religion possessed this village, I probably would be too frightened to be anything but a warlock voyeur. 1972P. Dennison in N. Tiptaft Religion in Birmingham 140 Wherever a local squire remained Catholic there was a good chance for the survival of a small pocket of the old religion in his territory. 1973J. Wainwright High-Class Kill 77 Some of 'em stumble against witchcraft. Sorcery. Demonology. The so-called ‘old religion’. 1975Country Life 6 Feb. 318/2 In Queen Mary's reign he was, as a reliable adherent of the old religion, put on the Council of the Welsh Marches.
1927Public Opinion 18 Feb. 149/1 These mistakes..seem folly to an *old-rich man. Ibid. 149/2 The old-rich know these things well enough, but the new-rich never discover them. 1976T. Allbeury Only Good German xiv. 101 The kind of places that the old rich go to rather than the new rich.
1885A. J. C. Hare Studies in Russia vi. 301 In later times the schismatics have divided into the Stároobriádtsi, or *Old Ritualists..and the Bezpopoftsi, or priestless people. 1911Old Ritualist [see Old Believer]. 1954G. Vernadsky Hist. Russia (ed. 4) v. 132 Outstanding among the leaders of the Old Ritualists, as the anti-Nikonians eventually became known, was the archpriest Avvakum. Ibid. viii. 180 The movement of the Old Ritualists by 1800 ceased to be a unit and broke into several separate sects. 1974R. Pipes Russia under Old Regime ix. 236 Russian dissenters are customarily divided in two basic groups: the Old Believers, known to themselves as ‘Old Ritualists’ (Staroobriadtsy) and to the official church as ‘Splitters’ (Raskol'niki), and the Sectarians.
1943Hunt & Pringle Service Slang 48 *Old rope, any tobacco which offends the nostrils of those present, and especially the finer varieties such as Egyptian. 1946J. Irving Royal Navalese 127 Old Rope, any offensive smelling tobacco.
1744Colonial Rec. Georgia (1906) VI. 117 Thomas Ellis has been an *old Settler in the Colony. 1815Old settler [see settler 2 b]. 1854R. B. Paul Some Acct. Canterbury Settlemt. 5 Having now resided more than two years in the Canterbury Settlement..[I] may almost call [myself] an ‘old settler’. 1964S. M. Miller in I. L. Horowitz New Sociol. 293 ‘Old-settler’ Protestant recruits largely from farm and rural areas.
1927Daily Express 11 Oct. 3/4 He gave a vivid description of waiting for the train at Charing Cross, then he met an ‘*old ship’, and they went to have a drink. 1948Partridge Dict. Forces' Slang 131 Old Ship, a former messmate (Navy).
1586T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. i. (1594) 79 Of a crooked *old-sire, we say that his spirit waxeth old with him.
1837W. Irving Capt. Bonneville I. 181 [This] threw a temporary stigma upon the game of ‘*old-sledge’. 1884‘C. E. Craddock’ In Tennessee Mts. ii. 82 The mingled charms of Old Sledge and apple-jack had occasioned comment. 1950R. P. Warren World Enough & Time iii. 101 The groups of men who played ‘Old Sledge’ and ‘Brag’ on the sidewalk.
1834W. A. Caruthers Kentuckian in N.Y. I. 12, I smokes the *old sodgers what the gentlemen throws on the bar-room floor. 1869‘Mark Twain’ in Buffalo Express 4 Sept. 1/1 A wooden box of sand, sprinkled with cigar stubs and ‘old soldiers’. a1877in Bartlett Dict. Amer. (1877) (ed. 4) 438 Ladies who swab our sidewalks,.. And..Haul off old soldiers lying there at rest. 1892Pall Mall G. 3 Aug. 5/2 Mr. W. R. tried to ‘old soldier’ him, but, as Harry said in sententious vernacular, ‘I wasn't having any’. 1936Amer. Speech XI. 304/1 Old soldier, ‘a partly-smoked cigar’... I have heard this more frequently as dead soldier, applied to empty beer or whiskey bottles but not to cigar butts.
1855Morton Cycl. Agric. II. 421 Melilotus azureus, a Swiss plant..with blue blossoms, has a singular porcine odour, whence it is vulgarly called ‘*Old Sow’; and is the plant which gives the peculiar flavour to Schapziger cheese.
1927R. B. McKerrow Introd. Bibliogr. iii. i. 246 The composition rates for *old spelling texts are some 10 per cent above the normal rate. 1960Studies in Bibliogr. XIII. 49 (heading) The rationale of old-spelling editions of the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. 1969N.Y. Rev. Bks. 30 Jan. 32/2 In the first place the words aren't old-spelling [in an edition of Shakespeare].
1838J. J. Audubon Ornith. Biogr. IV. 105 They have various appellations, among others those of ‘old wives’ and ‘*old squaws’. 1884etc. [see squaw n. (and a.) 4]. 1892B. Torrey Foot-Path Way 41 The cliffs..offer an excellent position from which to sweep the bay in search of loons, old-squaws, and other sea-fowl. 1963Kingston (Ontario) Whig-Standard 8 Feb. 11/2 Large numbers of Old Squaw ducks were sighted during the survey. 1971Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 10 Oct. 13/1 Oldsquaw is one of the few ducks with two complete annual plumage changes. 1975Globe & Mail (Toronto) 9 Dec. 11/5 Almost all the affected ducks are oldsquaws, long-tailed Arctic ducks that winter by the thousand on the Great Lakes.
1608–9Middleton Widow i. ii, Your college for your *old-standing scholar. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 47 Old-standing cases of chronic pericarditis. 1927A. Bennett Let. 14 Apr. (1966) I. 365 The Beaverbrook papers, which have my stuff at 1/6d a word under an oldstanding arrangement. 1962A. Sorsby in A. Pirie Lens Metabolism Rel. Cataract 298 The characteristic subepithelial opacities seen in this affection are an oldstanding observation.
c1869(title) Specimens of *old style types (Miller & Richard). 1873Browning Red Cott. Nt.-cap 132 Dignified And gentry-fashioned old-style haunts of sleep. 1884Bigmore & Wyman Bibliogr. Printing II. 42 Perceiving the tendency to go back to a former taste in printing, this foundry [sc. Miller & Richard], about 1850, commenced to cut a series of what they termed ‘old-style founts’, the success of which has been unexampled in the annals of type-founding. 1895Educat. Rev. Sept. 123 The old-style naturalist had been working from time immemorial. 1913J. H. Quinn Library Cataloguing xv. 222 ‘Old-style’ in type does not mean old-fashioned, but the more artistic and readable type modelled on the lettering of the early printers, principally those of the Italian presses. 1966H. Williamson Methods Bk. Design (ed. 2) viii. 101 In 1852 Miller and Richard..led the way to a new development by issuing specimens of a regularized old face which they named Old Style. The new class of old style types, of which this was the first, reverted to gradual shading and to oblique top-serifs, but retained vertical stress.
1919Athenæum 8 Aug. 727/2 A ‘gasper’ is a cheap cigarette, an ‘*old sweat’ an old soldier. 1924A. J. Small Frozen Gold i. 38 You're a levelheaded old sweat, I know, or you wouldn't be carrying the button. a1935[see easy a. 13 b]. 1955J. Thomas No Banners ix. 80 These were followed by two lank British privates, old sweats of the Regular Army. 1973Guardian 16 Mar. 12/5, I speak feelingly as an ‘old sweat’ who served in Ireland in an earlier time of ‘troubles’.
1848H. W. Haygarth Recoll. Bush Life Austral. i. 6 The Traveller's entertainment is confined to the ‘*old thing’, as it is contemptuously called, that is to say, beef and ‘damper’. 1945Baker Austral. Lang. iv. 80 It was what W. W. Dobie called the muttonous diet of the outback that produced the expression the Old Thing for a meal of mutton and damper.
1845Southern Lit. Messenger XI. 584/2 Charleston..[was] the chief commercial city of the ‘*Old Thirteen’. 1854B. F. Taylor Jan. & June 68 The ‘Old Thirteen’ were blazing bright—There were only thirteen then! 1904Hartford (Connecticut) Courant 30 Aug. 10 We want to see the Old Thirteen draw closer and closer together.
1821P. Egan Real Life in London I. ix. 187 *Old Tom—It is customary in public⁓houses and gin-shops in London and its vicinity to exhibit a cask inscribed with large letters—OLD TOM, intended to indicate the best gin in the house. 1836–9Dickens Sk. Boz, Gin-shops (1892) 171 Great casks..bearing such inscriptions as ‘Old Tom, 549’. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 846 When sweetened and diluted by the retailers gin is known as gin cordial or ‘Old Tom’. 1971R. Dentry Encounter at Kharmel iv. 75 A bottle of Old Tom and two hot-glasses.
1881Harper's Mag. Jan. 184/2 The young solks..played at ‘prisoner's base’ or ‘*old witch by the wayside’. 1906Dialect Notes III. 148 Old witch,..an outdoor game. The players circle around one of their number, the old witch, to whom the following is addressed: ‘Chickamy, chickamy, crany-crow... What time is it, old witch?’
1859W. Darlington Amer. Weeds 403 *Old-witch grass... Sandy pastures, cultivated grounds; throughout the United States. 1894J. M. Coulter Bot. W. Texas III. 508 Old witch grass... Annual... In cultivated land everywhere.
Senses 12 c–g in Dict. become 12 d–h. Add: [B.] [I.] [1.] [c.] Also old boot, a woman or wife.
1958F. Norman Bang to Rights iii. 129 What about the ironing said Sopey? Well what about it said the old boot. 1974Canad. Forces Sentinel (Ottawa) X. ii. 9/2 Talk turns to ‘seeing the old boot and sprogs’ again. Especially among the younger crew.
[4.] c. With nouns not usu. considered as marking the passage of time (as ‘x yards old’). colloq.
1967N. Lucas C.I.D. vi. 70 Their getaway was only two hundred yards old when their luck changed. 1977Observer 30 Jan. 23/8 The innings was no more than three overs old when Bedi came on. 1984Nutshell (Gainesville ed.) Spring 33 (Advt.), Even after a Maxell recording is 500 plays old, you'll swear it's not a play over five. 1984N.Y. Times 28 May 32/2 The race was 58 laps old when Bedard struck the inside wall between the first and second turns. 1988Los Angeles Times 15 Oct. iii. 12/1 Parker made an error before the game was an inning old.
[III.] [12.] c. Designating the oldest district or historic centre of a city, region, etc. Cf. old town n. and vieux port s.v. vieux a.
1752, etc. [see old town n.]. 1885Weekly New Mexican Rev. 9 Apr. 3/3 Albuquerque..has an old town like nearly all of the New Mexico cities. 1933F. De L. Leete Palestine vii. 75 The old city [of Jerusalem], as enclosed by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1542, covers little more than two hundred acres of ground. 1952‘W. Cooper’ Struggles of Albert Woods ii. v. 115 Albert met Margaret Dibdin..at about ten o'clock in the old port. 1970N. Marsh When in Rome (1972) ii. 24 He stayed at a small hotel..in Old Rome.
▪ II. † old, n.2 Obs.
Forms: α. 2–3 (Sc. 5–6) ald, (4 alde), 4–6 auld; β. 4–6 olde, (5 oolde), 5– old.
[Early ME. ald, app. a. ON. öld (:—aldâ or aldi), gen. sing. aldar, etc., age, an age:—OTeut. *alđoz old a. But the Eng. word may be in some, esp. later uses, directly from the adj. old in Eng., or may be an alteration of eld n. after eld, old adj.]
1. Age, duration of life or existence.
c1200[see ald n. 1].
2. An age, or secular period of the world.
c1200[see ald n. 2].
3. Old age, the advanced stage or period of life; also, The wane of the moon.
αc1205Lay. 19411 Bruttes hafden muchel mode..for þas kinges alde. a1300Cursor M. 10969, I and mi wijf on ald tas. 1535Stewart Chron. Scot. I. 444 Vnsaturabill bayth in ald and ȝouth.
β [c1315Shoreham 2 Wanne man drawith into olde-ward, Wel ofte his bones aketh.] c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1284 He hadde a Beres skyn colblak for old. c1420Pallad. on Husb. ii. 439 In old ek of this mone is this moost good. c1425Seven Sag. (P.) 641 He wille brynge the adown in olde. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §12 Let them be sowen in the olde of the mone. 1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. ii. ii. 104 Virgins, and Boyes; mid-age and wrinkled old [Qo. elders]. 1616Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme i. xiii. 63 They must not be gelded..in the old of the Moone.
▪ III. † old, v. Obs.
Forms: 1 aldian, 2 aldien, 3 alden, holden, 4–5 olden, 5–8 old, (6 Sc. auld).
[ME. olden = early ME. alden:—OE. (Anglian) aldian = WSax. ealdian, f. ald, eald, old a.: see eld v.1]
intr. To grow old.
c825Vesp. Psalter vi. 8 Ic aldade betwih alle feond mine. c1175Lamb. Hom. 35 Vfel is þet mon aldeþ. Ibid. 109 Þeo hearte ne aldeð naut. c1275Lay. 2937 Þo holdede [c 1205 ældede] þe king and failede his mihte. 1382Wyclif 1 Macc. xvi. 3 Nowe I haue oldid [1388 eldid]. 1496Dives & Paup. (W. de W.) iv. xxvii. 195/1 As they olde so they fade. c1560A. Scott Poems (S.T.S.) xxxiv. 83 Auldit rubiatouris. 1741J. Spence Let. 13 Jan. in Academy (1875) 20 Feb. 192/1 The Pretender looks sensibly olded since I was here last.
▪ IV. old
obs. f. wold; var. hold a., Obs. |