OLD


Meaning of OLD in English

adjective

COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES

a bit better/older/easier etc

I feel a bit better now.

a load of old bollocks

She’s just talking a load of old bollocks .

an old age pension

State old age pensions were introduced in 1908.

an old cliché

He seemed to believe that old cliché about a woman’s place being in the home.

an old friend (= someone who has been your friend for a long time )

We went to see some old friends who had moved to Harlow.

an old grievance (= one that you have felt unhappy about for a long time )

Years later, we became friends again and sorted out our old grievances.

an old joke

It reminded me of the old joke about the chicken crossing the road.

an old movie

She was watching an old movie on television.

an old quarrel (= one that has existed for a long time )

Now is the time to patch up old quarrels.

an old rival

Hindhead had a convincing victory over their old rivals, Frensham.

an old/ancient legend

You will have heard the old legend about how the rocks were formed.

an old/ancient tradition

In rural Wales, the old traditions persisted.

an old/ancient/age-old custom

Here on the island, many of the old customs have survived.

an old/ancient/long-standing grudge

He said they should celebrate their achievements, not nurse old grudges.

an older audience

The programme mainly appeals to an older audience.

an older sister ( also an elder sister especially BrE )

He had two older sisters, Karen and Jacqueline.

an older/elder brother

I have two older brothers.

an older/elder brother

I have two older brothers.

an old/firm/particular favourite

a sweater that’s an old favorite

an old/traditional enemy (= one you have had a long time )

In 1548, Scotland moved towards an alliance with her traditional enemy, England.

an old/traditional stereotype

Many people still believe that old stereotype.

as tough as nails/as tough as old boots (= very tough )

He’s as tough as nails – a good man to have on the team.

at the ripe old age of

She was put in charge at the ripe old age of twenty-nine.

dirty old man

elder statesman

elder statesman

a respected elder statesman

gives...the old one-two

Ali gives his opponent the old one-two , and it’s all over.

hoary old chestnut (= old idea, joke, remark etc )

Not that hoary old chestnut again.

how much older/smaller etc

She kept weighing herself to see how much heavier she was getting.

It’s a funny old world (= strange or unusual things happen in life )

It’s a funny old world .

live to a ripe old age

Eat less and exercise more if you want to live to a ripe old age .

much too big/old etc

He was driving much too fast.

old adage

the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words

old adversary

his old adversary

old age pension

old age pensioner

old age (= the time when you are old )

the problems of old age

old age

You need to start putting money away for your old age.

old banger

an old banger

old boy

an old boys’ reunion

old economy

Is the Old Economy really dead?

Old English sheepdog

old faithfuls

A handful of old faithfuls came to the meeting.

old fogey

You’re turning into a real old fogey !

old fogey

old folk

old folks' home

old fuddy-duddy

You’re such an old fuddy-duddy !

old girl

an old girls’ reunion

Old Glory

old hat

Most of this is probably old hat to you, isn’t it?

old lady

Where’s your old lady?

old lag

old maid

old man

I heard her old man beats her.

old master

a priceless collection of old masters

old money

He invited both the smart set and Perth’s old money.

old news (= news that you have already heard )

She wasn’t surprised; it was old news to her.

Old Nick

old pal (= a friend you have had for a long time )

an old pal

old people's home

old salt

old saw

That reminds me of the old saw about being careful about what you wish for.

old school tie

a system based on social class and the old school tie

old stomping ground

I guess he’ll try to reach his old stomping ground to drum up support.

Old Testament

old though it is/tired though he was etc

Strange though it may seem, I like housework.

old timer

old woman

Old World

the civilizations of the Old World

old

People always want to hear their old songs.

older and wiser

At the time I thought he was wonderful, but I’m older and wiser now.

poor (old) soul (= used to show pity for someone )

The poor old soul had fallen and broken her hip.

rare old

We had a rare old time at the party.

sb’s old school (= the school someone went to when they were young )

He went back to his old school to give a talk to the children.

sb’s old/new address

I’ve only got his old address.

settle...old scores

Jack came back after five years to settle some old scores .

silly old fool

You silly old fool !

something new/old/good etc

It’s a good car, but I’m looking for something newer.

the old routine

I get sick of the same old routine day after day.

the older generation

These beliefs were common among the older generation.

the same old

He’s the same old Peter – moody and irritable.

the usual excuse/the same old excuse

He made the usual excuses for not coming.

Whenever the trains are late, it's always the same old excuse.

though old/tired etc

The rooms, though small, were pleasant and airy.

tired old

tired old speeches

trusty old

He had his trusty old penknife with him.

young/old folk British English old-fashioned

Young folk these days don’t know the meaning of work.

young/old/elderly etc lady

your old self (= the way you were before an illness or other change )

He sounded more like his old self than the last time she had called.

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ ADVERB

how

I'd forgotten what a thin face Dad had got - how old he was.

Eczema and cracked calluses were more our problem. How old is this child?

I want to know, how old are they?

If you say your sign, you are essentially telling how old you are.

Does it operate efficiently and keep the house warm in winter? How old is it and what condition is it in?

Thank you. How old is he?

The blonde student woke early in Devon, and shifted under the sleeping weight of his arm. How old he looked!

She gives her half-laugh and tells me she doesn't know how old people generally are when they get married.

much

The embalmer was John Sheldon, a recently qualified surgeon not much older than Miss Johnson herself.

Now, we know kids get trained much older than we realized.

He was thirty-four, but looked much older , had a grotesquely humped back, a grey beard and droopy moustache.

Annie was not much older than Ida Rebecca, who was born in 1861.

He seemed like a different person, much older , worn and harried.

The fatal thing is to try and follow the sort of gradual schedule you would with a much older child.

I am not so much older than you.

too

The elms of the Wilderness have made coffins, if they were not too old .

He said it was too old for me.

Yet others had correctly calculated that they were too old or their employment patterns too discontinuous to be eligible for pensions.

Muhammad was too old for the draft.

Besides, she was too old for Santa Claus.

Perhaps I was getting too old and not nimble enough, and too brittle in the bone.

If Dole is too old , and Buchanan too extreme, Alexander is the reassuring option.

We never grow too old for love.

very

A very old couple wander along slowly.

Pacino demonstrates how well he can play a very old man.

In addition, the very old will form an increasingly large element of the total elderly population.

One day while you are diving, you find a very old boat that is full of treasure.

She was very old and very deaf.

Most achondrites are very old , dating from im-mediately after the formation of chondrites, perhaps even overlapping that time.

The gas stove was commonplace enough, although very old , standing on four straight legs.

It must be a very old family.

■ NOUN

age

She looked rather as the Duchess of Windsor did in distracted old age .

Or I could make serious, long-term changes and hope to live to a ripe old age .

With two years until retirement, he was guaranteed a comfortable old age .

Around 1720 Daniel Defoe witnessed a splendid triumph of determined old age over adversity near Lewes.

Pessimism about the nature of old age is perhaps the greatest enemy of a happy and fulfilled old age.

For the older age groups there is a distinct gender difference in the importance of lung cancer as a cause of death.

boy

In one corner of the grounds, a 13-year-old boy is busy sawing wooden poles in half.

Of course, this would no longer do for 7-year-old boys .

Somebody said it wasn't cricket, old boy .

I turned to the older boy and told him to fetch them from the refrigerator.

Now that he's been loved and fattened, the old boy wags his tail and whimpers hello like a puppy.

He's a decent old boy , is my old man.

brother

It were Bill's older brother .

When the woman marries the older brother , younger brother is heartbroken.

I had an older brother who had and still has a great collection of 45s, but we were actually swimmers.

Another had played checkers with a little girl named Hattie Wise, and persuaded her older brother to join the order.

As a child, she had been dominated by a slightly older brother .

He had a seven-year-old brother and a two-year-old sister.

Peter's older brother , Johnny, was also a right-winger.

When she was 15, her father and older brother died of brain tumors.

child

Hostility in older children is frequently inhibited from open expression as inner controls are developed.

In working hard and in paying the college bills for his two older children , he felt he had done his share.

During the midday meal the older children read edifying passages chosen by Nicholas from religious or secular history.

Problem-solving time can also be used to help an older child understand how his physical makeup affects his personality.

In due course the principle could be extended to cover child care for older children.

For example, young children are held less liable than older children.

Few authorities were felt to have a coherent policy on supporting their older children .

I dressed my brother and took him to school and picked him up after, as if I were the older child .

daughter

Poblete Roa, who were kidnapped in 1978 along with their eight-month-old daughter , Claudia Victoria.

They see him every weekday morning drinking coffee at Las Palmas Restaurant after taking his 15-year-old daughter to school.

They have a nine-year-old daughter .

His wife and 28-year-old daughter are both potters.

A brother or sister for the couple's five-year-old daughter Hailie might not be imminent, though.

The woman was accused of having beaten her four-year-old daughter when the daughter refused to be quiet.

An older daughter had, in fact, told doctors in hospital of the situation.

The 12-year-old daughter has one version, I have another.

days

In the old days there were a lot of acoustic songs, and a lot of switching.

Those are already the good old days .

They would have ordered things differently in the old days .

Maintaining an image was easy in the old days , when status was more standardized.

In the old days it was quite simple.

Anne was not prepared for the more authoritative leadership style that Laura had developed since the old days .

She says in the old days women used to look out for each other's children.

A full-tilt throwback to the good old days of Tres Hombres and Fandango.

friend

Although this particular occasion was rather marred by our mishap it was great to meet old friends again.

On one of these occasions, one of Gina's old friends came in useful.

Some place far, far away, where no old friend could possibly come knocking on his door.

Does this mean there aren't any, or was Goldsmith merely worried about upsetting old friends ?

It was only enough to buy a tiny place in South Tucson, far from their old friends .

In the small back room Danny Tanner sat listening to his old friend Billy Sullivan's problems.

You've moved house and now live in an area away from your family and old friends .

generation

In their view the older generation could never be persuaded of the value of a proletarian ideology.

Others, however, find that an older generation of gang members has been beneficial in keeping younger kids from joining gangs.

However, such corporate warriors tend to be the older generation .

Care within the extended family often flows from the oldest generation to the youngest.

Many of the poster writers were former students, the older generation of educated youth who had returned from the countryside.

A child's view of the older generation is clearly very partial.

In some ways it was good, though a lot of the older generation of vets didn't like it much.

And the older generation just doing, you know, same old, same old.

girl

They were bought by an enthusiastic sixteen year old girl who wants to drive them when they are old enough.

Two blacks, one a fourteen-year-old girl , were killed, and dozens more were injured.

Like leapfrog and friendships with older girls the teachers always put a stop to it.

Perhaps what I thought was true had been colored by the insecurities of a ten-year-old girl .

In this film an 11-year-old girl has been brutally raped and murdered.

A frail, thirteen-year-old girl , Helen Burns, befriends Jane.

The older girls used to stand me in a corner of the playground and throw stones at me.

lady

Those old ladies selling bunches of flowers on the Nevsky Prospekt?

Some little old lady somewhere in the world may really have tried to dry a poodle in a microwave.

The old lady was in raptures over him, however.

More old ladies were sweeping the passage with brushwood brooms a nation of stooping, laboring grannies.

I'd have been very happy playing an old lady of ninety at the age of fifteen.

What was I trying to do with this illiterate old lady ?

She immediately realized the old lady was blind.

The dead knows me! the old lady jumped to her feet, and the rope between us stretched taut.

man

Poor boy, she thought, away from his loving home and now dumped with an irritable old man .

He tore his cape in half and covered the old man with it.

One old man remembered that a visit as a child to the doctor did not result in being given a prescription.

Munro admitted taking part in the killing of an 18-year-old man from Downey.

Molly's old man , Hugh Pargeter, and the young people.

An old man who worked in a poultry store was stopped for running a light.

People remembered his slogans, his grand speeches, his swim across the open river as an old man .

But he was an old man nevertheless, with young boys being so close and full of the devil.

people

When we look at older people we often see large groups of grey heads on coaches or in cheap supermarkets.

We old people have lived our lives.

When this care of old people is short-lived, the inevitable prelude to death, it is accepted as natural.

Many pre-school poetry collections include material which presents negative images of older people .

There are around 180 repair schemes to help older people obtain grants or loans for repair and improvement work.

As a result, older people can often be cold without actually feeling that they are cold.

What do older people know about community nursing services?

For it has to be remembered that very old people get very tired and need to be selective about activity.

school

Going to Simon's old school is his Big Dream.

Gumina is old school stern: He speaks little, but says a lot.

She was an old school friend, although we were out of school by then.

Oscar was from the old school .

Not everything old is old school .

Such shops have gone old school crazy.

Further up the village is the old school , which is now used as the village hall.

sister

Investigators then questioned her 14-year-old sister , who had also babysat for the Allens.

Her parents were there, sobbing painfully, her younger brother, and older sister .

Nobody looking at her would have guessed that she was the older sister of the immaculate, desirable and beautiful Stella Lumsden.

She dropped Alvin off with an older sister and left for Navasota.

The five year old plaintiff was injured while out with his seven year old sister .

Tall and slender, with pale skin and jet-black hair, she was less outgoing than her older sister .

Not yet signed to a major, but reassuringly, still peeping out of the wardrobe of their best friend's older sister .

The older sisters played too, although one broke ranks to play volleyball in her junior college days.

son

In 1990 soldiers took her 18-year-old son away for questioning.

Her eight-year-old son , Scott, was turning her life into chaos.

The dead were a man, his wife, and their four year old son .

One word to the Wee Green P, old son , and you're dead meat.

He said he plans to use the prize money to establish a college fund for his 9-year-old son .

My two-year-old son chose that moment to enter the room.

Maria Park had even talked the childless presidential couple into adopting her older son .

woman

A 72 year old woman died of a perforated colon 11 days after completing the trial, despite continuing prednisolone treatment.

Dempsey had been booked on suspicion of mugging a 76-year-old woman .

Then somebody else died too, only the old woman didn't know who.

The benign old woman wore a big flowered garden hat and tended a magical flower garden.

Similarly, whilst until then the activity rates of older women had been climbing, thereafter they have levelled off.

He seems polite, and notably respectful of older women .

Raskolnikov has admitted to visiting the old woman on the first occasion but of course not on the second.

She is a pretty, older woman dressed in a flowery silk housecoat.

PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

an old chestnut

an old soak

She doesn ` t want to end up an old soak .

The father's nice enough, but a bit of an old soak and the grandmother was a dragon.

as old as Methuselah

be a chip off the old block

"That daughter of yours has a great sense of humour." "Yes, I like to think she's a chip off the old block!"

be sb's elder

dear old ...

He was a dear old gentleman who was very kind to me.

Just like my ball club in Saint Louis, my dear old chums the Cardinals.

So the evil monster had brought unhappiness and death to a dear old man who had never hurt anybody.

That's a hundred more than dear old David Beckham gets from his Ferrari 550.

The Republicans, like Chambers, soon decided they wanted to go back to dear old Nixie.

You had to talk to those dear old folk at the Empress and I don't blame you.

elder abuse

Community Care believes elder abuse is a major problem.

In the overall case, the four-year statute of limitations on alleged fraud, theft and financial elder abuse expires in February.

Intent could be a factor in defining elder abuse.

Report on local authority guidelines on elder abuse.

Researching the prevalence of elder abuse is notoriously difficult, and information on the abuse of black elders is non-existent.

The incidence of elder abuse is hard to quantify.

give someone the (old) heave-ho

good old John/Karen etc

grand (old) age

But even at the grand old age of 28, he was keen to give it a go.

In 1989 the Society reached the grand old age of 100 years.

The house, despite its grand old age, is welcoming and comfortable.

it's the same old story

It's the same old story - too much work and not enough time.

lead sb a merry old dance/a right old dance

little/old devil

A true old devil , Manson vanishes in a puff of smoke.

I really miss the old devil .

Impotent old devils and dried-up hags always deride the efforts of the young.

Indeed, I worship the little devil , but only as a travelling companion.

Not that he's the worst of them, poor old devil .

So much, thought Blanche, for flirting with the lascivious old devil .

There was one old devil with red eyes.

miles older/better/too difficult etc

money for old rope

It was money for old rope.

That to Sergeant Joe was money for old rope.

not just any (old) man/woman/job etc

And a T'ang is not just any man.

of/from the old school

At such a time, with his formal dress, he looked like a diplomat of the old school .

He was of the old school , complete with stiff collar and bowler hat, and he was a good all-rounder.

He was one of the old school , not exactly sleeping under hedges, but an itinerant caddie.

I had to have ideas about how to sell the packages even though my business was still of the old school .

Oscar was from the old school .

The overall effect was grandfatherly-a gentleman of the old school , fusty, faintly absentminded, and deeply courteous.

They sweep aside the qualifications and reservations which monetarists of the old school would occasionally express.

old Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all

old bat

But smoking was obviously kosher as far as this old bat went.

I stuck some in once when we were a bit short and the old bat threatened to stop it out of my wages.

Most of our women in the House are frightful old bats .

She's a real old bat , she is.

The old bat led me astray in more ways than one.

The old bats included a plastic, an aluminum and a wooden one.

old biddy

old boy/my dear boy

old codger

old coot

He's a crazy old coot .

And by the way, old coot , cough up $ 200 for our trouble.

She thought Mrs Magendanz had seen the old coot staggering around the house and screaming abuse at her.

Taking off your clothes for an old coot like him?

We had the tar right there, just throw the old coot ill and cook him and use him for fill.

old dear

One old dear was doing her knitting.

Or perhaps the two old dears together.

The poor old dear has been having a hard time of late.

They were two old dears and good fun, but this one... well!

This week one old dear ignored her relatives and left £25,000 to her tortoise.

We were having tea at the same hotel when Mrs Harvey came in, with another old dear .

old fart

Soho, meanwhile, enthuse and make me feel like a miserable old fart .

The old fart had served his purpose.

old goat

And a word of advice just you be careful of that old goat , Moreton.

As well as taking kids, eagles also try to flush or knock older goats off ledges.

She pushed open the door into the old goat shed.

What's the old goat on about anyway?

old habits die hard

But old habits die hard, and Apple has shown a proclivity to chase market share while hand-wringing over shrinking gross margins.

It was probably unnecessary, she thought, but old habits died hard.

Things were going well, but old habits die hard.

old habits/traditions/customs die hard

But old habits die hard, and Apple has shown a proclivity to chase market share while hand-wringing over shrinking gross margins.

It was probably unnecessary, she thought, but old habits died hard.

Perhaps because it's an island old customs die hard here.

Things were going well, but old habits die hard.

This is an area where old customs die hard.

old trout

And she hadn't said when the disagreeable old trout was going to walk.

Consequently, as older trout die they are not replaced and in time the trout population disappears.

She had insisted on coming with me to refresh, so she said, her memory of that ghastly old trout .

old/stupid bag

All the other literary women he knew were old bags of whom he would be bitterly ashamed.

Give it to the old bag , Normy!

He handed Eleanor's book to a moralistic old bag he had once done a writing workshop with.

He was stuffing drawing and painting materials into a shabby old bag .

Me, an old bag of black sheep.

One crack or tear in them, and they would sag like an old bag of sand.

That would show the old bag .

Who was that beaten-up old bag wearing my clothes?

open old wounds

Seeing my ex-boyfriend opened some old wounds .

In her innocent curiosity, Cissie had opened old wounds .

Whatever the outcome, Marcos's death has opened old wounds .

rake over the past/old coals

ring out the Old Year

ripe old age

Angie was the orchestra's soloist at the ripe old age of 22.

Da Ponte lived to the ripe old age of 89.

At the ripe old age of 28 he says he can no longer bear the rigours of the game.

Ex-wife Alana demonstrates that she's still out in front in the glamour stakes at the ripe old age of 43.

Inpart this reflects increasing expenditure on state pensions as more and more people live to a ripe old age.

It was not until they levelled out that she thought again about the possibility of living to a ripe old age.

Or I could make serious, long-term changes and hope to live to a ripe old age.

So it seemed Meurent lived to a ripe old age.

There's no escape from that if you want to live to a ripe old age.

Tom had not reached the ripe old age of twenty-nine without discovering quite a few of them.

sb is up to their (old) tricks

sb's old lady

sb's old woman

the (old) bill

But Jim says the Minister asked for extras which added nearly £20,000 to the bill .

Did she suspect I had no money to pay the bill ?

Keith Cowie's work fits the bill on all counts.

Lawmakers initially had been scheduled to vote on the bill Friday, but postponed the balloting for lack of sufficient votes.

The education measure disturbed Bryant enough that he voted against the bill in its final form.

The strength of the argument for splitting the bill is evident in the reaction of the two Republican senators from Texas.

There was strong opposition in Washington to the many generous provisions of the bill .

They were standing at the desk by now and the girl was working on the bill .

the Grand Old Man of sth

That is, apart from the grand old man of Les Bleus.

What would the grand old man of travel have made of the thirty nine days scheduled for the 1991 world tour?

the Old Testament

the Old World

the good old days

Going to a movie only cost a five cents in the good old days.

A full-tilt throwback to the good old days of Tres Hombres and Fandango.

But those were the good old days.

For the weapons scientists, the good old days are over.

Gone from our ken the iron horse, Those were the good old days ... of course.

In the good old days of rampant dualism, the mind was rarely mentioned in polite society.

In the good old days you had lots of career men.

Switch on your television set these days and you can bask in the warmth of the good old days.

This isn t a wild club night in the good old days of Ibiza.

the old guard

the old guard of the Communist Party

But now what had happened to the old guard was happening to him, too.

But the old guard in the leadership sends in the tanks and introduces a new phase of vicious repression.

By agreeing to run, Daley gave up his Senate seat and angered some of the old guard on the South Side.

Meanwhile, like the Old Guard , the conventional wisdom dies but does not surrender.

Soon many of the old guard felt his hand upon them.

The trouble is that his men have done just as badly as the old guard .

To the old guard there is no such place.

Would she like to abandon the old guard , she was asked?

the old school tie

the old school tie

the old-boy network

the oldest profession

To see Lascaux is to recognize that the oldest profession may very well be artist.

Tomming is the oldest profession in the world.

the same old story/excuse etc

For those who claimed to have seen or heard it all before, racism was always the same old story.

It's always the same old story.

It seems to be the same old story.

Oh, you know - it's the same old story.

Sounds like the same old story really.

there's life in the old dog yet

wise/wily/funny/weird etc old bird

I hadn't noticed what a weird old bird Ned was, either.

Just so. Funny old bird .

you can't teach an old dog new tricks

EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

a beat-up old car

a lovely old oak tree

a six-week-old baby

An old man was in the park feeding the pigeons.

an old woman

Do you have any old magazines the kids can cut up?

For the first time in my life, I feel old .

How old is your cat?

I have two brothers, both older than me.

I saw Phil with one of my old girlfriends.

I was the youngest one in the family, so I had to wear my sisters' old clothes.

It's one of the oldest buildings in San Francisco.

My parents are giving us their old sofa.

She shouldn't marry him - he's much too old for her.

She wanted to have a baby before she was too old .

Sikes got out of jail in 1983, and was soon back to his old habits.

Sue was wearing jeans and an old blue jacket.

The Luna Baglioni is one of the oldest hotels in Venice.

The new stadium is much bigger than the old one.

EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS

An older pair tending their spawn.

His fewer statements lack that old zing.

Joan was nineteen years old when she died.

The Biblical story does more than turn the older myth on its head.

The two older children had no legal advice.

This was when the need to live together came not from the older generation, but from the child's own family.

We also converted naptime into reading time once the children were older.

Longman DOCE5 Extras English vocabulary.      Дополнительный английский словарь Longman DOCE5.