old chestnut

Idioms  

1. A stale joke, story, or saying, as in Dad keeps on telling that old chestnut about how many psychiatrists it takes to change a light bulb. This expression comes from William Dimond's play, The Broken Sword (1816), in which one character keeps repeating the same stories, one of them about a cork tree, and is interrupted each time by another character who says “Chestnut, you mean . . . I have heard you tell the joke twenty-seven times and I am sure it was a chestnut.”

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

old chestnut

The old chestnut of the England team not wanting it enough, not having enough pride or passion, cannot be seen here.

From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026

Investors are returning from the long weekend with some optimism as that old chestnut — hopes for an Iran peace pact — is helping push bond yields lower and stock futures higher.

From MarketWatch ● May 26, 2026

Steven Skybell, magnificent in the role of the besieged patriarch, led a superb cast that brought a new understanding to an old chestnut through the force of Yiddish language and culture.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 9, 2025

Consider the old chestnut, “All Greeks are mortal, Socrates is Greek, therefore Socrates is mortal.”

From Salon ● Jul. 29, 2024

He was watching them from a distance, half hidden in the shadow of one of the old chestnut trees that grew near the house.

From "The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling" by Maryrose Wood

Related Words

• episode
• gag
• narration
• narrative
• reminiscence
• short story
• sketch
• tale
• tall tale
• yarn