释义 |
old hat slang. [old a. + hat n.] Something considered to be old-fashioned, out of date, or unoriginal. Also attrib. or as adj.
1911A. Quiller-Couch Brother Copas iv. 78 Men have..put it, with like doctrines, silently aside in disgust. So it has happened with Satan and his fork: they have become ‘old hat’. 1916D. H. Lawrence Let. 19 Feb. (1962) I. 433 The whole of the consciousness and the conscious content is old hat—the millstone round your neck. 1920― Touch & Go i. i. 21 Oliver. What was the address about, to begin with? Willie. Oh, the same old hat—Freedom. 1932G. B. Shaw Platform & Pulpit (1962) 250 If I mention that sort of thing I am told that is old hat, that I am a back number. 1940R. Chandler Farewell, my Lovely xxi. 98 We curved..past the Georgian-Colonial vogue, now old hat, past the handsome modernistic buildings. 1944W. Stevens Let. 12 Sept. (1967) 474 This is all growing to be old hat now, and I am eager..to go on to something else. 1959N. Kneale Quatermass Experiment iii. 82 All pious generalizations, plus old-hat background waffle. 1959Observer 5 Apr. 18/3, I suppose we couldn't possibly revive ‘The Nymph’? Too old hat. 1960J. MacLaren-Ross Until Day she Dies ii. 30 This drammer..that's sure going to make A Hatful of Rain look just like a handful of old hat. 1961Listener 16 Nov. 826/1 Today's contemp'ry is tomorrow's old-hat. 1963Ibid. 3 Jan. 45/2 The late-romantic style of performance is now regarded as ‘ham’ and ‘old hat’. 1970New Scientist 5 Mar. 476/2 Those who have been told that they belong to an ‘old-hat’ arts culture are now looking to climb on a ‘new-hat’ science-culture bandwagon. 1974V. Gielgud In Such a Night xii. 110 She..had made all jokes on the subject of mothers-in-law not only ‘old hat’ but..meaningless. |