old hat
4
7.1
- idiom
- Informal
:
pasado de moda
- Today, this story is old hat, and the resulting malaise has contributed in some areas to the lack of interest in finding uses for the computer in the curriculum.
- it's old hat now
- has become old hat
- getting to be old hat
Examples
-
Point is, this stuff is entirely old hat, and it's sad that the folks at The Simpsons seem to think it's edgy.
Blog text (22) -
Such stuff seems like moldy old hat these days.
Fiction book (2001) -
Am I just old hat to you?
Blog text (28) -
Now it's all old hat.
Blog text (6) -
I'm not really feeling like a team player this year; after a while, it becomes old hat.
Blog text (19) -
The basic premise is old hat.
Blog text (6) -
But doesn't that type of campaign all sound a bit "old hat"?
Blog text (12) -
It's old hat.
Blog text (13) -
But that's old hat.
Blog text (19) -
The style of those shoes is so last season; they are just old hat now.
Synonyms
14
9.8
A person or thing from a different time that seems old-fashioned
9
4.4
A past event or fact that many people no longer care about
2
7.2
An object, custom, or idea from long ago that seems out of date
1
6.8
No longer new or fashionable
1
7.5
Someone presents a known idea as if it were new
Antonyms
How Outdated
Surface Forms
Morphology
old + hat
The adjective 'old' clearly conveys outdatedness and 'hat' is a clothing item associated with style, so learners can plausibly infer an interpretation like 'old-fashioned' from the constituents. However, the broader idiomatic extension to 'boring, unoriginal, or no longer interesting' is not fully predictable from the literal parts and requires some exposure, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The idiom old hat may come from the idea of a real old hat that people stopped wearing because it was out of fashion. So calling something old hat means it feels boring and 'no longer interesting, original, or fashionable'.