old masters

A term applied collectively to the great European painters, esp of the 16c and 17c

passed master

1. One who has passed as a master
2. A qualified or accomplished master, a thorough proficient (also past master)

old /ōld/

adjective (oldˈer or eldˈer (qv); oldˈest or eldˈest)

1. Advanced in years
2. Having been long or relatively long in existence, use or possession
3. Of a specified (or to-be-specified) age
4. Of long standing
5. Worn or worn-out
6. Out of date
7. Superseded or abandoned
8. Former
9. Old-fashioned
10. Antique
11. Ancient
12. Early
13. Belonging to later life
14. Belonging to former times
15. Denoting anyone or anything with whom or with which one was formerly associated, such as old school, etc
16. (of a language) of the earliest or earliest known stage
17. Long practised or experienced
18. Having the characteristics of age
19. Familiar, accustomed
20. In plenty, in excess, or wonderful (esp in high old; informal)
21. A general word of familiar or affectionate approbation or contempt (often good old or little old; informal)
22. Reckoned according to Old Style (see style)

adverb (Shakespeare)

Of old

noun

1. An old person (archaic or, esp in pl, informal)
2. Olden times, eld

olde /ōld or ōldˈi/ adjective

A facetious spelling of old, used to imply that something has a quaint charm

oldˈen transitive verb and intransitive verb (rare)

To age

adjective

Former, old, past (now usu only in phrases in olden days/times)

oldˈie or (rarely) oldˈy noun (informal)

1. An old person
2. A film, song, etc produced or popularized, etc a considerable time ago

oldˈish adjective

Rather old

oldˈness noun

oldˈster noun

1. A person who is growing old (informal)
2. A midshipman of four years' standing, a master's mate

old age noun

The later part of life

old-age pension noun

A pension for someone who has reached old age, esp under a national system (first instituted in Britain in 1908; see also retirement pension under retire)

old-age pensioner noun

old bachelor noun

A rather elderly or confirmed bachelor

Old Bailey noun

The Central Criminal Court in London

Old Believer noun (historical)

In Russia, a dissenter from the Orthodox church, a Raskolnik

Old Bill noun

1. A soldier with a drooping moustache in World War I cartoons by Bruce Bairnsfather
2. The police (slang; sometimes with the)

old bird noun

An astute, experienced person

old boy noun

1. One's father, husband, etc (informal)
2. An old or oldish man, esp one in authority, or one who has some air of youthfulness
3. A former pupil
4. An affectionately familiar term of address to a male of any age (also old bean, old chap, old fellow, old fruit, old man, old thing; informal)

Old Boy network noun

1. (also without caps) the members of a society (usu upper-class), closely interconnected, who share information and secure advantages for each other
2. This form of association

Old Catholic noun

A member of a body that broke away from the Roman Catholic Church on the question of papal infallibility

old-clothesˈman noun

Someone who deals in cast-off garments

Old Contemptibles plural noun

The British Expeditionary Force to France in 1914, from the then Kaiser's probably apocryphal reference to them as a contemptible little army

old country noun

The mother-country

Old Dart noun (Aust sl)

Great Britain

old dear noun (slang)

An old lady

Old Dominion noun

Virginia

old economy noun

The part of the economy based on traditional industries and the production of physical goods (cf new economy under new)

oldˈ-economy adjective

Old English noun

1. See English
2. The form of black letter used by 16c English printers

Old English sheepdog noun

A large breed of dog with a long shaggy coat, usu white with large dark patches

old-estabˈlished adjective

Long established

olde-worlde /ōl-di-wûrldˈi/ adjective (informal)

Self-consciously imitative of the past or supposed past

old Europe noun

The countries of Western Europe

old face noun (printing)

The early roman type as used by Caslon

oldfangˈled adjective

Old-fashioned

old fart noun (derogatory or facetious)

A staid or curmudgeonly old person

old-fashˈioned adjective

1. In the style of long ago
2. Out of date
3. Clinging to old things and old styles
4. With manners like those of a grown-up person (said of a child)
5. (in old-fashioned look) quizzically disapproving or critical

noun (N American)

A cocktail made from whisky, bitters, water and sugar

old-fashˈionedness noun

old fogey or old fogy noun

A dull old person, or someone with old-fashioned notions

old-foˈgeyish or old-foˈgyish adjective

Like an old fogey

Old French noun

The French language until about 1400

old gang or old guard noun

The old and conservative element in a party, etc

old-genˈtlemanly adjective

Characteristic of an old gentleman

old girl noun (informal)

1. An old or oldish woman, esp one with an air of youthfulness
2. A former pupil
3. An affectionately familiar form of address to a female of any age

Old Glory noun

The US flag, the Stars and Stripes

old gold noun

A dull gold colour like tarnished gold, used esp in textile fabrics

old'-growth adjective

(of forest or woodland) ancient

old guard see old gang above.

old hand noun

1. An experienced performer
2. An old convict

Old Harry, Old Nick, Old One, Old Poker or Old Scratch noun

The Devil

old-hatˈ adjective

Out-of-date

Old Hundred or Old Hundredth noun

A famous tune set in England about the middle of the 16c to Kethe's version of Psalm 100, marked ‘Old Hundredth’ in Tate and Brady (1696)

old identity noun (Aust and NZ)

A person who has been around a place for a long time

Old Kingdom noun

The 3rd to 6th dynasties in ancient Egypt (26c–22c BC)

old lady noun (informal)

1. One's mother or wife
2. A noctuid moth (Mormo maura), with a dull pattern on its wings

Old Light (Scot Auld Licht) noun

A member of a relatively less advanced religious school, applied esp to the party in the Scottish Secession Church who continued to hold unchanged the principle of connection between Church and State

oldˈ-line adjective (N American)

1. Conservative
2. Traditional

old-liˈner noun

old maid noun

1. A spinster, esp one who is likely to remain a spinster
2. A woman, or often a man, of the character supposed to be common among spinsters, ie fussy, prim, conventional, over-cautious, methodical
3. A simple game played by passing and matching cards
4. Also the player left with the odd card

old-maidˈhood or old-maidˈism noun

old-maidˈish adjective

Like the conventional old maid, prim

old-maidˈishly adverb

old man noun

1. One's husband, father, or employer (informal)
2. The captain of a ship
3. A familiar, friendly or encouraging term of address
4. Unregenerate human nature
5. An adult male kangaroo
6. A plant, the southernwood

adjective (Aust informal; also with hyphen)

Of exceptional size, intensity, etc

old man of the sea noun

A person or burden that one cannot shake off, from the old man in the Arabian Nights who, having been carried across a stream by Sinbad the Sailor, refused to get down off his back

old man's beard noun

A name for several plants including traveller's joy

old master noun

(often with caps) any great painter or painting of a period previous to the 19c (esp of the Renaissance)

old money noun

1. Wealth that has been in the same family for several generations
2. The possessors of such wealth

old'-mon'ey adjective

old moon noun

The moon in its last waning quarter before its reappearance as a new moon

Old Nick see Old Harry above, and Nick

Old Norse see Norse

Old Pretender see under pretend

Old Red Sandstone noun (geology)

The lacustrine or continental equivalent of the (marine) Devonian, so called in contradistinction to the New Red Sandstone

old rose noun

1. Any of several varieties of rose that existed before the development of hybrid tea roses
2. A deep soft pink

old salt noun

An experienced sailor

old school noun

Those whose ways, thoughts or attitudes are such as prevailed in the past

oldˈ-school adjective

old school tie noun

1. A distinctive tie worn by old boys of a school
2. The emblem of (esp upper-class) loyalties shown by such people to each other

old soldier noun

1. An experienced person who knows how to make himself or herself comfortable, or how to turn things to his or her advantage
2. An empty bottle

old song noun

A mere trifle, a very small price

old squaw or oldˈsquaw noun (US)

A kind of duck, the hareld

old stager noun

An experienced person, an old hand

old story noun

1. Something one has heard before
2. Something that happened long ago, or has happened often

Old Style noun

1. See style
2. A typeface in imitation of old face (printing)

old talk noun (W Indies)

Small talk

oldˈ-talk intransitive verb (W Indies)

To make small talk

Old Testament noun

The first part of the Christian Bible, containing writings about the history of the Hebrew people and books of prophecy (abbrev OT)

oldˈ-time adjective

1. Of or relating to times long gone by
2. Of long standing
3. Old-fashioned

old-timˈer noun

1. An experienced person, a veteran
2. Someone who has been where he or she is for a long time
3. An old-fashioned person
4. (esp as a form of address; US) an old person

Old Tom noun (archaic)

A kind of sweetened gin

old wife noun

1. An old woman
2. Someone who has the character ascribed to old women
3. A cap for curing a smoking chimney (Scot)
4. A kind of duck, the hareld
5. A fish of various kinds, sea-bream, filefish, alewife, menhaden, etc

old woman noun

1. One's wife or mother (informal)
2. An old-womanish person

old-womˈanish adjective

Like an old woman, esp fussy

oldˈ-world adjective

1. Belonging to earlier times
2. Old-fashioned and quaint
3. (with cap) of the Old World

Old World noun

The eastern hemisphere

any old see under any

come the old soldier over someone

To impose on a person

of old

1. Long ago
2. In or of times long past
3. Formerly

the old sod

One's native country, esp used of Ireland, when also the ould sod