old school

American  

noun

• old schools
  plural

1. advocates or supporters of established custom or of conservatism.

   a military man of the old school.

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old school British  

noun

1. a school formerly attended by a person

2. a group of people favouring traditional ideas or conservative practices

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• old-school
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• old schools
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of old school

First recorded in 1790–1800

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

old school

“Widow’s Bay,” leaning into comedy, goes old school, conjuring familiar spectres that knowingly nod to “Jaws,” “Psycho,” the canonical works of King and John Carpenter, and other touchstones of cultural anxiety.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

Jones also defended her "old school choices" while appearing on Kay's programme Tracks of My Years, which included Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 and Glenn Medeiros' Nothing's Going to Change My Love for You.

From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026

“I’m a little bit of the old school of cultivating regulars and getting people to want to come back to you,” Winterman, the owner of Francie, said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

"It's very old school isn't it? I'm more of an Amazon shopper."

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

At my old school, once a month we had teacher prep day.

From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko

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