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

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

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

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 24, 2024

There may be no such thing as bad pizza, as the old chestnut goes, but some pizzas are better than others.

From New York Times • May 13, 2023

This is an old chestnut, but keeping your door open can help to make you look approachable.

From BBC • Sep. 13, 2021

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