"old hat" meaning in English

See old hat in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Audio: En-au-old hat.ogg [Australia] Forms: more old hat [comparative], most old hat [superlative]
Etymology: Origin unknown. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests a connection to German alter Hut (noun, literally “old hat”). Etymology templates: {{unk|en|title=Origin unknown}} Origin unknown, {{cog|de|alter Hut|lit=old hat|pos=noun}} German alter Hut (noun, literally “old hat”) Head templates: {{en-adj}} old hat (comparative more old hat, superlative most old hat)
  1. (idiomatic) Very familiar; common, hackneyed or out of date. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: banal, commonplace, cliché, démodé, passé, unchic, unfashionable, old-hat
    Sense id: en-old_hat-en-adj-f8wagRpR

Noun

Audio: En-au-old hat.ogg [Australia] Forms: old hats [plural]
Etymology: Origin unknown. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests a connection to German alter Hut (noun, literally “old hat”). Etymology templates: {{unk|en|title=Origin unknown}} Origin unknown, {{cog|de|alter Hut|lit=old hat|pos=noun}} German alter Hut (noun, literally “old hat”) Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} old hat (countable and uncountable, plural old hats)
  1. The vulva. Tags: archaic, countable, slang, uncountable Synonyms (vulva): coochie Translations (vulva): reva (Finnish)
    Sense id: en-old_hat-en-noun-SrkWdNoq Disambiguation of 'vulva': 100 0 Disambiguation of 'vulva': 100 0
  2. (by extension) Sexual intercourse. Tags: archaic, broadly, countable, slang, uncountable Synonyms (sexual intercourse): coitus Translations (something very familiar): peruskaura (Finnish), kalter Kaffee [masculine] (German)
    Sense id: en-old_hat-en-noun-f8Co6fTO Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 42 3 55 Disambiguation of 'sexual intercourse': 5 95 Disambiguation of 'something very familiar': 0 100
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: ladybits, quim, vulva, horizontal mambo, rumpy-pumpy, copulation

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for old hat meaning in English (5.8kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "title": "Origin unknown"
      },
      "expansion": "Origin unknown",
      "name": "unk"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "alter Hut",
        "lit": "old hat",
        "pos": "noun"
      },
      "expansion": "German alter Hut (noun, literally “old hat”)",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Origin unknown. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests a connection to German alter Hut (noun, literally “old hat”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more old hat",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most old hat",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "old hat (comparative more old hat, superlative most old hat)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1946 November 11, “New Plays in Manhattan”, in Time, archived from the original on 2009-05-15",
          "text": "Coward is such an old hand at this kind of thing that he makes it seem old hat.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1964 July, “The mythology of monorails”, in Modern Railways, page 1",
          "text": "In fact, monorails are rather old hat.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1987 May 8, Elaine Sciolino, “Washington Talk: The Hart Story Grips the Capital”, in New York Times",
          "text": "It is old hat for a sex scandal to bring down a politician.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 May 4, Fredrick Kunkle, Paul Duggan, “Straining for a Glimpse of Royalty”, in Washington Post",
          "text": "Based on the size of the crowd, perhaps the queen is old hat.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021 September 6, Zack Handlen, “Rick And Morty ends its fifth season looking for an escape hatch”, in AV Club",
          "text": "The only real knock against “Mortshall” is that “Rick and Morty get sick of each other and split up for a while” feels kind of old hat at this point—the comic premise of the show requires their relationship to be toxic (because a lot of the humor comes from seeing Rick be a shit and seeing Morty try haplessly to deal with Rick being a shit), and they can only try and sell the illusion that anything is going to change so many times before it starts to get stale.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Very familiar; common, hackneyed or out of date."
      ],
      "id": "en-old_hat-en-adj-f8wagRpR",
      "links": [
        [
          "familiar",
          "familiar"
        ],
        [
          "hackneyed",
          "hackneyed"
        ],
        [
          "out of date",
          "out of date"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Very familiar; common, hackneyed or out of date."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "banal"
        },
        {
          "word": "commonplace"
        },
        {
          "word": "cliché"
        },
        {
          "word": "démodé"
        },
        {
          "word": "passé"
        },
        {
          "word": "unchic"
        },
        {
          "word": "unfashionable"
        },
        {
          "word": "old-hat"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-old hat.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c6/En-au-old_hat.ogg/En-au-old_hat.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/En-au-old_hat.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "old hat"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "title": "Origin unknown"
      },
      "expansion": "Origin unknown",
      "name": "unk"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "alter Hut",
        "lit": "old hat",
        "pos": "noun"
      },
      "expansion": "German alter Hut (noun, literally “old hat”)",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Origin unknown. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests a connection to German alter Hut (noun, literally “old hat”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "old hats",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
      },
      "expansion": "old hat (countable and uncountable, plural old hats)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1980, Erica Jong, Fanny",
          "text": "'Tis a Nest, a Niche, an Old Hat, an Omnibus, an Oyster, a Palace o' Pleasure.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The vulva."
      ],
      "id": "en-old_hat-en-noun-SrkWdNoq",
      "links": [
        [
          "vulva",
          "vulva"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "sense": "vulva",
          "word": "coochie"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic",
        "countable",
        "slang",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "vulva",
          "word": "reva"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "42 3 55",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1723, Charles Walker, Memoirs of Sally Salisbury, letter XI",
          "text": "Upon which she very pertly reply'd, She had done that not with a Design to affront but to convince me of the Value she had for my Present; for that if the Pedantick Blockhead should come, he should only have a little bit of Old-Hat to stay his Stomach, till he got to some Harlot of his own Puritanical Flock […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Sexual intercourse."
      ],
      "id": "en-old_hat-en-noun-f8Co6fTO",
      "links": [
        [
          "Sexual intercourse",
          "sexual intercourse"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension) Sexual intercourse."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "5 95",
          "sense": "sexual intercourse",
          "word": "coitus"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic",
        "broadly",
        "countable",
        "slang",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "something very familiar",
          "word": "peruskaura"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "something very familiar",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "kalter Kaffee"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-old hat.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c6/En-au-old_hat.ogg/En-au-old_hat.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/En-au-old_hat.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "ladybits"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "quim"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "vulva"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "horizontal mambo"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "rumpy-pumpy"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "copulation"
    }
  ],
  "word": "old hat"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English adjectives",
    "English archaic terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English rare terms",
    "English slang",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English terms with unknown etymologies",
    "English uncountable nouns"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "title": "Origin unknown"
      },
      "expansion": "Origin unknown",
      "name": "unk"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "alter Hut",
        "lit": "old hat",
        "pos": "noun"
      },
      "expansion": "German alter Hut (noun, literally “old hat”)",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Origin unknown. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests a connection to German alter Hut (noun, literally “old hat”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more old hat",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most old hat",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "old hat (comparative more old hat, superlative most old hat)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1946 November 11, “New Plays in Manhattan”, in Time, archived from the original on 2009-05-15",
          "text": "Coward is such an old hand at this kind of thing that he makes it seem old hat.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1964 July, “The mythology of monorails”, in Modern Railways, page 1",
          "text": "In fact, monorails are rather old hat.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1987 May 8, Elaine Sciolino, “Washington Talk: The Hart Story Grips the Capital”, in New York Times",
          "text": "It is old hat for a sex scandal to bring down a politician.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 May 4, Fredrick Kunkle, Paul Duggan, “Straining for a Glimpse of Royalty”, in Washington Post",
          "text": "Based on the size of the crowd, perhaps the queen is old hat.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021 September 6, Zack Handlen, “Rick And Morty ends its fifth season looking for an escape hatch”, in AV Club",
          "text": "The only real knock against “Mortshall” is that “Rick and Morty get sick of each other and split up for a while” feels kind of old hat at this point—the comic premise of the show requires their relationship to be toxic (because a lot of the humor comes from seeing Rick be a shit and seeing Morty try haplessly to deal with Rick being a shit), and they can only try and sell the illusion that anything is going to change so many times before it starts to get stale.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Very familiar; common, hackneyed or out of date."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "familiar",
          "familiar"
        ],
        [
          "hackneyed",
          "hackneyed"
        ],
        [
          "out of date",
          "out of date"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Very familiar; common, hackneyed or out of date."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "banal"
        },
        {
          "word": "commonplace"
        },
        {
          "word": "cliché"
        },
        {
          "word": "démodé"
        },
        {
          "word": "passé"
        },
        {
          "word": "unchic"
        },
        {
          "word": "unfashionable"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-old hat.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c6/En-au-old_hat.ogg/En-au-old_hat.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/En-au-old_hat.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "old-hat"
    }
  ],
  "word": "old hat"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English adjectives",
    "English archaic terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English rare terms",
    "English slang",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English terms with unknown etymologies",
    "English uncountable nouns"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "title": "Origin unknown"
      },
      "expansion": "Origin unknown",
      "name": "unk"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "alter Hut",
        "lit": "old hat",
        "pos": "noun"
      },
      "expansion": "German alter Hut (noun, literally “old hat”)",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Origin unknown. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests a connection to German alter Hut (noun, literally “old hat”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "old hats",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
      },
      "expansion": "old hat (countable and uncountable, plural old hats)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1980, Erica Jong, Fanny",
          "text": "'Tis a Nest, a Niche, an Old Hat, an Omnibus, an Oyster, a Palace o' Pleasure.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The vulva."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "vulva",
          "vulva"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic",
        "countable",
        "slang",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1723, Charles Walker, Memoirs of Sally Salisbury, letter XI",
          "text": "Upon which she very pertly reply'd, She had done that not with a Design to affront but to convince me of the Value she had for my Present; for that if the Pedantick Blockhead should come, he should only have a little bit of Old-Hat to stay his Stomach, till he got to some Harlot of his own Puritanical Flock […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Sexual intercourse."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Sexual intercourse",
          "sexual intercourse"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension) Sexual intercourse."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic",
        "broadly",
        "countable",
        "slang",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-old hat.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c6/En-au-old_hat.ogg/En-au-old_hat.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/En-au-old_hat.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "vulva",
      "word": "coochie"
    },
    {
      "word": "ladybits"
    },
    {
      "word": "quim"
    },
    {
      "word": "vulva"
    },
    {
      "sense": "sexual intercourse",
      "word": "coitus"
    },
    {
      "word": "horizontal mambo"
    },
    {
      "word": "rumpy-pumpy"
    },
    {
      "word": "copulation"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "something very familiar",
      "word": "peruskaura"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "something very familiar",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "kalter Kaffee"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "vulva",
      "word": "reva"
    }
  ],
  "word": "old hat"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.