old-fashioned

old-fashioned — adjective

1. showing a style, design, or way of doing things that was popular long ago, often

1.adjectiveB1
Definition

showing a style, design, or way of doing things that was popular long ago, often suggesting it is no longer suitable for today — for example, a flowery dress from the 1950s, a wooden telephone, or the idea that men should always pay on a date.

Example

Grandma still uses an old-fashioned kettle that whistles loudly on the stove.

old-fashioned + concrete noun (kettle)

Marcus thinks writing thank-you letters by hand is wonderfully old-fashioned.

complement after copular verb 'is'

Common collocations
  • old-fashioned values
  • old-fashioned views
  • old-fashioned charm
  • wonderfully old-fashioned
  • rather old-fashioned
  • look old-fashioned
Synonyms
  • outdated

    stronger and more negative — suggests something has fallen behind and needs replacing

  • traditional

    neutral or positive — emphasises continuity of customs without implying it is wrong

  • quaint

    old in a charming, slightly amusing way; usually about places or small details

  • antiquated

    formal; strongly negative — suggests the thing is so old it has become useless

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

old-fashioned + noun

look/seem/feel + old-fashioned

Usage Note

Tone shifts with collocate. With objects (kettle, radio, bakery) it often sounds warm or charming; with views, attitudes, or rules it often sounds critical, suggesting the speaker thinks the ideas are out of step with modern life.

Common Mistakes

My phone is very old-fashion.
My phone is very old-fashioned.
the adjective always ends in -ed; 'old-fashion' is not a standard form.
She is an old-fashioned.
She is old-fashioned.' / 'She has old-fashioned ideas.
the adjective is not used as a standalone noun for a person.

old-fashioned — noun

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

All five words describe things connected to an earlier time, but the speaker's attitude differs. 'Old-fashioned' is the most flexible — warm when used of objects ('an old-fashioned kettle') and mildly critical when used of ideas ('old-fashioned views about marriage'). 'Outdated' is harsher and almost always negative: an outdated computer or rule should be replaced. 'Antiquated' is even stronger and more formal, suggesting something is so behind the times it has stopped being useful. 'Traditional' is the neutral or positive partner, focusing on long-running customs without judgment, as in 'a traditional Taiwanese breakfast'. 'Quaint' adds a layer of charm and gentle amusement, often about small towns or cottages. So a country bakery may be quaint, its bread recipe traditional, the cash register old-fashioned, and the accounting software outdated — four different shades of 'old'.

old-fashioned ↗outdated ↗traditional ↗quaint ↗antiquated

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

  • wonderfully old-fashioned
  • rather old-fashioned
  • delightfully old-fashioned
  • hopelessly old-fashioned

Phrases

  • call me old-fashioned, but…
  • in an old-fashioned way
  • good old-fashioned (hard work / common sense)

Prepositions

  • old-fashioned about (something)
  • old-fashioned in (one's views)

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchOld EnglishMiddle EnglishModern English

First recorded in English in the early 1600s as a compound of 'old' (going back to Old English 'eald', meaning aged or having existed for a long time) and 'fashioned' (the past participle of the verb 'fashion', from Old French 'façon' meaning 'shape' or 'manner', which itself came from Latin 'factio', a making or doing). The literal sense was therefore 'shaped in the manner of an earlier time'. By the 1800s the word had picked up its modern double tone — affectionate when applied to objects and customs, and slightly critical when applied to opinions. The cocktail sense appears around the late 1800s in American bar culture, where customers asked for whiskey served the 'old-fashioned' way before sweeter modern mixes became popular; the drink kept the name and is now a fixed cocktail menu item worldwide.