back number

noun

1. an out-of-date issue of a serial publication.
2. Informal. anything out-of-date.

back number

noun

1. an issue of a newspaper, magazine, etc, that appeared on a previous date
2. informal.
   a person or thing considered to be old-fashioned

Word History and Origins

Origin of back number¹

An Americanism dating back to 1805–15

Idioms and Phrases

Dated, out of style. For example, That hat is really a back number , or The game has changed so fast that a player who returns to the circuit after several years' absence usually finds he or she is a back number . This term originally referred to back issues of periodicals, which are no longer newsworthy. [Late 1800s]

Example Sentences

Richard, a back number of my unsavory career has turned up to deprive me of my appetite and blight my being.

From Project Gutenberg

I wish tasteless, conventional, and machine-made architecture were as much of a "back-number" in England as it is here.

From Project Gutenberg

He rails at conditions instead of changing them, and eventually he finds himself shelfed and shunned as a back number.

From Project Gutenberg

When a man begins shaking his head over the news of the day, he is done for; a back number.

From Project Gutenberg

Susan never shakes her head; and it's rather hard on her, I think, to be the wife of a back number.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• age-old
• antique
• archaic
• hoary
• old-fashioned
• timeworn
• venerable