tried-and-true

[ trahyd-n-troo ]

adjective

1. tested and found to be reliable or workable.

Word History and Origins

Origin of tried-and-true¹

First recorded in 1930–35

Idioms and Phrases

Tested and proved to be worthy or reliable, as in Let me deal with it—my method is tried and true . [Mid-1900s]

Example Sentences

How contrived that Modern Family would end its season finale with the tried-and-true sitcom trope: a wedding.

From The Daily Beast

As Lindsay Lohan is learning, the comeback trail is marked with three tried-and-true steps.

From The Daily Beast

As any tried-and-true creative force, Schnabel kept producing.

From The Daily Beast

Every political campaign relies on visual shorthand and tried-and-true symbolism to help communicate its message.

From The Daily Beast

My tried-and-true nightly consumption has been old episodes of Murder, She Wrote and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

From The Daily Beast

Related Words

• proven
• time-tested

More About Tried And True

What does tried-and-true mean?

Tried-and-true is used to describe things that are known to work or be reliable due to having been tested or having worked many times before.

The term uses the sense of the word true meaning reliable and unfailing.

Tried-and-true is most often used to describe methods, tools, or other things that someone believes to be reliable because they’ve used many times before and they’ve always worked. It’s often used in situations in which someone wants to continue using the same method or tool they’ve been using to do something instead of trying something new that they’re unfamiliar with (even if it may work better).

It’s sometimes used without hyphens, as tried and true. However, if it’s used immediately before a noun, it’s usually hyphenated, as in a tried-and-true method for getting out stains. 

Example: Why should we try a new recipe for chocolate chip cookies when we could just stick to the one that’s tried-and-true and that we’ve used for years?

Where does tried-and-true come from?

The term tried-and-true has been used since at least the 1800s.

When something is described as tried-and-true, it means it’s been tried or used many times and has always worked. Tried-and-true is most commonly used to describe methods for doing things. It may be used in descriptions of products to make them sound reliable, especially products that have been sold for a long time without having been changed much or at all.

Did you know ... ?

What are some other forms related to tried-and-true?

• tried and true (non-hyphenated form)

What are some synonyms for tried-and-true?

• time-tested
• proven 
• reliable

What are some words that share a root or word element with tried-and-true? 

 

• tried
• true
• true-blue

What are some words that often get used in discussing tried-and-true?

 

• method
• way
• recipe
• tested
• trusted
• work

How is tried-and-true used in real life?

Tried-and-true is typically used to describe reliable methods, tools, and products.

Going back to tried-and-true methods for anxiety management and baking brownies on a rainy afternoon. That work will get done… sometime.

— Jessica Friedmann (@MsFriedmann) November 16, 2017

I wrote about my tried and true methods for making seriously good coffee – at home and even at an office (you have to hack a Keurig, but it's easy): https://t.co/keVXsuGrhG

— Mark Bittman (@bittman) October 21, 2019

As a bootstrapper you should be spending less than 10% of your time on devops.

Devops can quickly become a time suck and distract you from everything else you need to do (development/marketing/cs).

That means:
nocode > code
PaaS > IaaS
Tried-and-true tech > Shiny new tech

— Ian Grabill 🇺🇸 (@IGrabill) September 17, 2020

 

 

Try using tried-and-true!

Which of the following words is an antonym (opposite) for tried-and-true?

A. proven
B. unreliable
C. trustworthy
D. tested