of or relating to the ancient world or to a former period of history.
of or relating to the Old World.
old-world customs.
characteristic of the Old World; quaint; traditional.
Europe, Asia, and Africa, especially when regarded collectively as the inhabited landmasses of the world known to Europe prior to its discovery of the Americas.
First recorded in 1705–15
First recorded in 1590–1600
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It’s a hard twist to reconcile in a funky sport with old-world attributes, like the referee mysteriously keeping track of the remaining time like a secret cupcake in his pocket.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026
Historic freezes in 1894 and 1895 nearly eradicated the industry, its first and last real brush with old-world calamity.
From Slate ● Apr. 20, 2026
As well as dressing up, they also try to replicate the posture, behaviours - such as using a fan - and "old-world way of speaking" of the Regency period.
From BBC ● Feb. 6, 2026
The kind that reeks of washed rinds, that crunches with tyrosine crystals, that bears the name of a tiny European village in delicate, old-world type.
From Salon ● Jul. 6, 2025
Representing the marriage of old-world traditions with the apple-pie aspirations of the new country, she took crown after crown.
From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray
They only knew it offered what the Old World increasingly didn’t: freedom to think, to work and collaborate, to worship and to build.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
While U.S. power and light providers steal headlines with data center superprojects and the proposed megamerger between NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy, Old World cousins are outperforming.
From Barron's ● May 27, 2026
The vast majority of cases occur in China, with thousands of cases caused by Old World hantavirus strains occurring annually.
From Salon ● May 9, 2026
In this case, an Old World hantavirus was at fault, not the Andes strain that’s responsible for the outbreak on the cruise ship.
From MarketWatch ● May 8, 2026
Old World armies did not fight in the winter; New World armies were expected to do the same.
From "George Washington, Spymaster" by Thomas B. Allen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
