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Synonyms

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.”

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

It wasn’t; it was a hoary old chestnut that had already proved its inadequacy.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 24, 2024

And they nearly all seem to agree that old chestnut, that "something must be done".

From BBC • Nov. 25, 2023

It's an old chestnut of advice, but a well-positioned mirror can make a room look larger.

From Salon • Jul. 25, 2022

The chapters alternate among the women, each one breathing new life into the old chestnut, “You never know what goes on behind closed doors.”

From New York Times • May 29, 2020

After dinner he would lean back against the base of an old chestnut oak, put his hands under his head, and watch the aerie.

From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George

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.