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

Making voters feel anxious is a tried-and-true way to grab their attention, said Christopher Ojeda, a political scientist at UC Merced who studies mental health and politics.

From Los Angeles Times

I decided it was time to follow the tried-and-true advice about what to do when you’re addicted to an app: delete.

From Slate

The tried-and-true way to close yawning gaps in income inequality, health care access, and worker satisfaction is with labor unions.

From Salon

It's a pretty easy one, but it's a tried-and-true thing, and I think it works well.

From Salon

In the world of personal finance, there are certain tried-and-true recommendations: Spend less than you earn.

From Salon

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