Meanings
plural old saws
- idiomaticA cliché, saying, or overused expression, especially a proverb or maxim.
He's full of old saws, but he's not much for original advice.
3 more examples
Never believe the old saw, "If you can remember the Sixties, you weren't really there". Barry Miles remembers the 60s in vivid detail, down to the dress with "zebra stripes" that George Martin's wife wore at a dinner party given by Paul McCartney and Jane Asher in 1967, and he certainly was there.
2010 March 20, James Campbell, “Barry Miles: 'I think of the 60s as a supermarket of ideas. We were looking for new ways to live'”, in The Guardian2017, Andrew Marantz, "Becoming Steve Bannon's Bannon", The New Yorker, Feb 13&20 ed. There’s an old saw about Washington, D.C., that staffers in their twenties know more about the minutiae of government than their bosses do.
Cooke and Eve Best deliver a verbal showdown that’s twice as thrilling as the Kingsguard swordfight. Alicent brings out all the old saws: Supporting Rhaenyra has left Rhaenys with two dead children, bastards for grandsons, and a grievously wounded husband. “We do not rule, but we may guide the men who do,” the queen finishes.
2022 October 16, Jenna Scherer, “An enticing House Of The Dragon crowns Westeros' new ruler”, in AV ClubSynonyms: old chestnut, byword, saying, adage, saw, proverb, maxim, apothegm
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA cliché, saying, or overused expression, especially a proverb or maxim.
Origin
- Middle Englisholde sawe, old sawe
- Englishold saw
From Middle English olde sawe, old sawe, equivalent to old + saw (“a saying or proverb”).
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Dutch gezegde
- gezegdeold saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions
Finnish vanha sanonta
- vanha sanontaold saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions
French dicton, adage
- dictonold saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions
- adageold saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions
- expression éculéeold saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions
German Bauernregel, alter Spruch
- Bauernregelold saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions
- alter Spruchold saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions
- olle Kamelleold saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions
- alter Hutold saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions
Polish stare porzekadło
- stare porzekadłoold saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions
Swedish talesätt
- talesättold saying, conventional wisdom, often based in superstitions
Cite this entry
old saw. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/old%20saw
“old saw.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/old%20saw. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “old saw,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/old%20saw.
Source: old saw on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.