real dinosaur
- noun
- Offensive
- The old rotary phone is a real dinosaur compared to the smartphones we have today.
Examples
-
The bulky desktop computer in the corner is a real dinosaur in an age of sleek laptops.
-
That old ledger was huge, a real dinosaur of bookkeeping, with gold-rimmed pages and the musty rainy-day smell of back rooms.
Fiction book (2001) -
Her style of dressing is a real dinosaur, reminiscent of fashion trends from the 1980s.
Synonyms
65
7.6
Someone whose habits or style are old-fashioned
14
9.8
A person or thing from a different time that seems old-fashioned
4
8.1
A person who is old-fashioned and not modern
2
7.2
An object, custom, or idea from long ago that seems out of date
1
8.6
An old-fashioned person or thing that is out of date
A person who refuses to accept new ideas or technology
Antonyms
How Old-fashioned
Surface Forms
Morphology
real + dinosaur
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'real' (genuine) with 'dinosaur' (a very old/prehistoric creature): calling something a 'dinosaur' evokes antiquity and obsolescence, so a B1 learner who knows those constituent senses will readily infer 'very old-fashioned/outdated'. This metaphoric extension is common and follows an obvious compositional logic across languages, making the expression transparent.
Etymology
Real dinosaur comes from the image of a huge, ancient animal in a museum that seems out of place today. That's why calling something a real dinosaur means it is 'old-fashioned' or 'outdated'.