old hat
Something regarded as very familiar and unoriginal, hackneyed, or out of date.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“That old joke is old hat to me now.”
“I have worked in this office for ten years, so these new rules are old hat.”
“While the critics dismissed the director's latest film as old hat, the loyal audience still found the familiar themes comforting.”
From old and hat. The specific historical significance of the combination remains unknown.
- 01
all hat and no cattle
Full of big talk but lacking action, power, or substance; pretentious.
- 02
all hat and no cowboy
Full of big talk but lacking action, power, or substance; pretentious.
- 03
any old nook or cranny
Alternative form of any nook or cranny.
- 04
bad old days
The past, seen as a time when things were worse.
- 05
big old
Emphatically or impressively big; really big.
- 06
black hat
A villain in a story, especially in a Western (a film or other work of the Western genre).
- 07
brick in one's hat
Drunkenness.
- 08
buy straw hats in winter
Of stocks, to buy when both demand and price are low, so as to sell when demand and price are high.
Last updated August 10, 2026