old – English adjective declension

Adjective: old

Comparison Forms

Synthetic

Comparative	older; elder
Superlative	oldest; eldest

Perifrastic

Sample Sentences

an old abandoned building
an old friend
They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too. [1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:]
When asked why the devices were retrofitted on older models instead of newer ones, Sarno said the MTA typically uses older car models when making modifications in case there are any unwanted effects. [2025 March 9, Nic F. Anderson, “Tired of subway delays? The MTA wants to fix that by strapping Google smartphones to New York trains”, in CNN:]
a wrinkled old man
an old loaf of bread
the ginkgo is one of the oldest living trees
Basque is the oldest language in Europe
I find that an old toothbrush is good to clean the keyboard with.
How old are they? She’s five years old and he's seven. We also have a young teen and a two-year-old child.
My great-grandfather lived to be a hundred and one years old.
My new car is not as good as my old one. a school reunion for Old Etonians
The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; for, even after she had conquered her love for the Celebrity, the mortification of having been jilted by him remained. [1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:]
But over my old life, a new life had formed. [1994, Michael Grumley, Life Drawing:]
The footpath follows the route of an old railway line.
That is the old way of doing things; now we do it this way.
When he got drunk and quarrelsome they just gave him the old heave-ho.
Adrian thought it worth while to try out his new slang. ‘I say, you fellows, here's a rum go. Old Biffo was jolly odd this morning. He gave me a lot of pi-jaw about slacking and then invited me to tea. No rotting! He did really.’ [1991, Stephen Fry, chapter III, in The Liar, London: William Heinemann, →ISBN, page 26:]
Rik: But even great shtick can get old real fast: the dreaded Saturday Night Live syndrome.
Jim: Randomness can help - many Living Books have characters that do different things each time you click on them. [1995, MacUser, volume 11, MacUser Publications, page 147:]
John and I built a small stone house on the head of “Bonetta” Canyon and had a hog killing time all by ourselves. Hunting was our delight at first, until it became old. [2000, Charles A. Siringo, A Texas Cowboy: or, Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony, Penguin, →ISBN, page 100:]
The songs start to get old real fast, and it's easy to get bored after the third song. [2008, Homer L. Hall, Logan H. Aimone, High School Journalism, The Rosen Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 171:]
It was the same old thing every week, working and drinking, working and drinking. It became old and I got really sick of it. [2012, Blossom, From Under a Bridge Ii, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 40:]
Your constant pestering is getting old.
We're having a good old time.
My next car will be a big old SUV.
My wife makes the best little old apple pie in Texas.
Look at Murphy playing with newest old favorite toy; he loves it!
any old
Finally, when they were all done slobbering around, old Sally introduced us. [1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 165:]
Monsieur's story is too old for our Juvenile Magazine. [1868, Oliver Optic's Magazine: Our Boys and Girls ..., page 431:]
The text is too old for toddlers, but the colorful photographs are large enough and appropriate for them. [1998, Rita Schrank, Science, Math, and Nutrition for Toddlers: Setting the Stage for Serendipity:]
Diane Ehrensaft (1997) finds that middle-class parents typically buy "older" toys for their children to encourage accelerated development. [2006 January 9, Christine L. Williams, Inside Toyland: Working, Shopping, and Social Inequality, Univ of California Press, →ISBN, page 219:]
If you feel you have to leave something out because it's too horrible, then either the story is too old for the child, or you fail to understand the way your child will accept the rough justice and feel inwardly content at the outcome. [2019 12, Sean David Burke, Lighting the Literacy Fire, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 131:]
Bluey: Oh! It's like checkers!
Bandit: Yeah, but a lot harder than checkers.
Chilli: And so probably a bit old for Bluey, right? [2021, Joe Brumm, “Chest”, in Bluey, season 3, episode 11:]
URSULA: Madam, you must come to your uncle. Yonder's old coil at home: it is proved, my Lady Hero hath been falsely accused, the prince and Claudio mightily abused; [1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:]

Adjectives inflected like old

old,

Etymology

1. Inherited from Middle English old, oold, from Old English ald, eald (“old, aged, ancient, antique, primeval”), from Proto-West Germanic *ald, from Proto-Germanic *aldaz (“grown-up”), originally a participle form, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eltós (“grown, tall, big”).
2. Cognates
3. Cognate with Scots aald, auld (“old”), Yola yola, yolaw, yold, yole (“old”), North Frisian ool, ual, uuil, uul, üülj (“old”), Saterland Frisian oold (“old”), West Frisian âld (“old”), Alemannic German altu, oalt, oalts, olt, àltà (“old”), Bavarian oid (“old”), Central Franconian alt, aod, auw, oot (“old”), Cimbrian and German alt (“old”), Dutch oud (“old”), German Low German old, oolt (“old”), Luxembourgish al (“old”), Mòcheno òlt (“old”), Vilamovian aołd (“old”), Yiddish אַלט (alt, “old”), Danish ældre (“elderly”), Faroese eldri (“elder, older”), Icelandic aldinn (“old”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk eldre (“elderly”), Swedish äldre (“elderly”), Crimean Gothic alt (“old”), Gothic 𐌰𐌻𐌸𐌴𐌹𐍃 (alþeis, “old”), Latin altus (“high, tall, grown big, lofty”). Related to eld. See: Dutch Adjectives 'oud', Gothic Adjectives '𐌰𐌻𐌸𐌴𐌹𐍃', Latin Adjectives 'altus'.

Verbs referencing "old"

Italian Adjectives alto, German Adjectives alt, Dutch Adjectives oud, German Adjectives oll.