Dictionary

old saw en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From Middle English olde sawe, old sawe, equivalent to old + saw (“a saying or proverb”).

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) A cliché, saying, or overused expression, especially a proverb or maxim.
   • Never believe the old saw, "If you can remember the Sixties, you weren't really there". Barry Miles remembers the 60s in vivid detail, down to the dress with "zebra stripes" that George Martin's wife wore at a dinner party given by Paul McCartney and Jane Asher in 1967, and he certainly was there. 2010 March 20, James Campbell, “Barry Miles: 'I think of the 60s as a supermarket of ideas. We were looking for new ways to live'”, in The Guardian:
   • Cooke and Eve Best deliver a verbal showdown that’s twice as thrilling as the Kingsguard swordfight. Alicent brings out all the old saws: Supporting Rhaenyra has left Rhaenys with two dead children, bastards for grandsons, and a grievously wounded husband. “We do not rule, but we may guide the men who do,” the queen finishes. 2022 October 16, Jenna Scherer, “An enticing House Of The Dragon crowns Westeros' new ruler”, in AV Club:
   • He's full of old saws, but he's not much for original advice.
   • 2017, Andrew Marantz, "Becoming Steve Bannon's Bannon", The New Yorker, Feb 13&20 ed. There’s an old saw about Washington, D.C., that staffers in their twenties know more about the minutiae of government than their bosses do.

Forms

Synonyms

byword · gnome · gnomic saying · maxim · adage · dictum · paroemia · apothegm · saw · old chestnut · proverb · saying · apophthegm · mantra

Translations (12)

fr adage (old saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions) · de alter Spruch (old saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions) · de Bauernregel (old saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions) · de alter Hut (old saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions) · gl dito (old saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions) · fr expression éculée (old saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions) · sv talesätt (old saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions) · nl gezegde (old saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions) · pl stare porzekadło (old saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions) · de olle Kamelle (old saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions) · fi vanha sanonta (old saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions) · fr dicton (old saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions)