old hat

adjective

1. old-fashioned; dated.
2. trite from having long been used or known.

old hat

adjective

1. postpositive old-fashioned or trite

old hat

1. Obsolete, old-fashioned: “Get with it, Murray; your methods are strictly old hat.”

Word History and Origins

Origin of old hat¹

First recorded in 1745–55

Example Sentences

Even if the rhetoric of urgency is old hat, the context for it is not.

From The Daily Beast

Basquiat, in turn, seemed to make Warhol relevant again—he was an old hat at this point, his work increasingly out of vogue.

From The Daily Beast

As compared to that, Israel/Palestine is old hat, and at most a peripheral irritant.

From The Daily Beast

This only proved how valuable finance was to the economy and that manufacturing was simply old hat.

From The Daily Beast

A deep, beautifying flush swept across the face under the deplorable old hat.

From Project Gutenberg

Heidi wrapped it round her old hat and laid it on the top of the basket, so that the red package was quite conspicuous.

From Project Gutenberg

When Lady Tempest visited him the next time, she, to her great astonishment, perceived him still with his old hat on.

From Project Gutenberg

The remains of the turkey, a pair of finger-bowls, his old hat—all these came hastily into his mind, and were dismissed.

From Project Gutenberg

His music publisher met him in the streets of Paris, wearing a wretched old hat and looking very seedy.

From Project Gutenberg