Word.ws English Dictionary

old-school

old-school is the alternative form of old school.

Meaning of old school

Adjective

old school (comparative more old school, superlative most old school)

  1. (idiomatic) Now often old-school: characteristic of a method for accomplishing a task, a style, or a way of thinking that was employed in a former era, remembered either for its inferiority to the current method, or for its superiority over the new way.
    • That teacher’s old-school methods aren’t effective. They’re just annoying.
  2. (idiomatic) Of or relating to a style of popular music regarded as more old-fashioned or traditional, or not following newer trends; specifically (often old skool), of or relating to hip-hop or rap music of the late 1970s and 1980s (or more recent music of this style) as contrasted with newer styles of such music.
    • Also look out for a PHAT PHAT oldskool style tune on Jemini [the Gifted One]'s album set to drop in the next couple of weeks. It uses the Love Unlimited 'Strange Games and Things' break, and comes on with the old skool rhymes believe …1995 April 14, ed [pseudonym], “Low Down on New Tunes dropping soon”, in rec.music.hip-hop (Usenet)
  3. (US, idiomatic) Chiefly in the form Old School: having conservative or traditional views on Christianity or politics.
    • Local politicians assume various appellations, such as New School and Old School Democrats, Snyderites, Clintonians, and many others, mostly derived from the name or principles of some popular demagogue.1816, “an Old Scene Painter” [pseudonym], The Emigrant’s Guide; or, A Picture of America: […], London: […] W[illiam] Clowes, […] for W[illiam] Simpkin and R[ichard] Marshall, […], →OCLC, footnote *...

See all 5 meanings of old school

Forms of old-school

comparativemore old-school
superlativemost old-school

Questions about old-school

What is old-school the alternative form of?
Old-school is the alternative form of old school.

Words near old-school in the dictionary

  1. old-man-yells-at-cloud
  2. old-men
  3. old-oil
  4. old-old
  5. old-olds
  6. old-school
  7. old-schools
  8. old-shoe
  9. old-style
  10. old-sweat
  11. old-sweats

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: old-school (page history and authors); old school (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “old-school.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/old-school. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.