Definition of: old

(ōld) adjective old·er or eld·er, old·est or eld·est
1. Having lived or existed in a certain state for a long time: said of things liable to decay: an old elm; having lived beyond the middle period of life; aged: opposed to young.
2. Exhibiting discretion and judgment or deportment like a mature and experienced person.
3. Having some specified age: used after the noun expressing time or age: a child two months old.
4. Having been made, used, or known for a long time: opposed to new, fresh, recent, or modern; belonging to an early or remote period of history or development; ancient; antique: the old Greeks, old coins; also, belonging to a period long past or just preceding the present; not the latest; previous; former.
5. Belonging to the former of two or the earliest of several things: the Old Testament.
6. Long cultivated; not newly tilled: old land; not of this year's harvest: old corn.
7. Worthless on account of age or repeated use; shabby; worn–out: an old coat; also, stale; trite: an old joke.
8. Continued or established for a long time; known or used long; familiar: used often as an epithet of kindness or friendship: an old comrade.
9. Having had long experience or practice; hence, crafty; cunning: an old offender, an old hand at farming.
10. A general term of endearment or kindly familiarity: old boy.
11. In physical geography, in the later stages of a cycle of development: said of topographic forms, streams, etc.
12. Signifying the primeval character of the devil: the old enemy.
13. Colloq. More than enough; plentiful; great; wonderful: a great old racket.
—noun
1. Past time: days of old.
2. A long time; long standing: my friend of old. [OE ald]
—old′ness noun Synonyms (adj.): aged, ancient, antiquated, antique, decrepit, elderly, gray, hoary, immemorial, obsolete, olden, patriarchal, remote, senile, time–honored, time–worn, venerable. That is termed old which has existed long, or which existed long ago. Olden is a statelier form of old, and is applied almost exclusively to time, not to places, buildings, persons, etc. As regards periods of time, the familiar are also the near; thus, the old times are not too far away for familiar thought and reference; the olden times are more remote, ancient times still further removed. Aged applies chiefly to long–extended human life. Decrepit, gray, and hoary refer to the effects of age on the body exclusively; senile upon the mind also; as, a decrepit frame, senile garrulousness. One may be aged and neither decrepit nor senile. Elderly is applied to those who have passed middle life, but scarcely reached old age. Remote primarily refers to space, but is extended to that which is far–off in time; as, at some remote period. See ANCIENT¹, OBSOLETE, PRIMEVAL. Compare ANTIQUE. Antonyms: compare synonyms for NEW, YOUTHFUL.