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Glite Dictionary
the olds

the olds

1 9.1
People who have lived a long time
  • noun
  • Informal
translation icon : los mayores
  • The olds were slumped in front of the TV, canoodling and drinking wine.

I feel like that's like a a slur the olds.

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Examples

  • The olds in my neighborhood often share their stories from the past.

  • At the reunion, it was heartwarming to see the olds reminiscing about their youth.

  • The young, the old, the helpless, all were put to the sword.

  • The young, the old, the helpless, all were put to the sword.

  • Facebook is still awesome, but I'm one of the 'olds.'

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  • Many of the olds prefer traditional values over modern trends.

Synonyms

elderly
vsthe olds
68 2.0

A group of people who are past middle age

is informal and used in casual speech by everyday speakers
aged
vsthe olds
  • Archaic
3 1.8

Old people considered as a group

is informal and used in casual everyday speech

Antonyms

youth
515 1.0

Young people as a group often compared with older people

Surface Forms

the olds plural

Morphology

the + olds

The sense refers directly to 'old' (not young) combined with the definite article 'the', so a learner who knows those words can infer it denotes older people collectively. However, pluralizing the adjective into 'olds' is colloquial and non-standard (standard English would use 'the old' or 'the elderly'), so the formation may confuse some learners and is not fully predictable from regular composition patterns.

Etymology

The olds probably comes from a short, informal way of saying the old ones, like a child pointing to grandparents and saying 'ask the olds'. So, the olds now means 'older people' as a group.