old chestnut
old chestnut noun: a well-worn story.
Noun
old chestnut (plural old chestnuts)
- A well-worn story.
- "How's the speech to-night?" he asked, languidly; "same old chestnuts, I suppose." "As this is Mr. Grayson's second speech," replied Harley, sharply, "it is a little early to call anything that he says 'same old chestnuts.' Besides, I don't think that repetition will ever be one of his faults. Why...1905, Joseph Alexander Altsheler, chapter V, in The Candidate, page 72
- "Are you trying to pull my leg? If I say 'No,' will you tell me that in that case I shall be very hungry by bedtime, or something? I suppose that old chestnut has just got round to your club. Have you been electing Noah an honorary member?"1911, Ian Hay [pen name; John Hay Beith], chapter 9, in A Safety Match
Synonyms of old chestnut
Forms of old chestnut
| plural | old chestnuts |
|---|
Origin of old chestnut
Originally as chestnut, with “old” for emphasis. Popularized US 1880s, particularly Northeast and Midwest, with various theories propounded. Also credited to viking tales about when they first came to England and saw forests full of chestnut trees, becoming disorientated and walking in circles while citing "We've already walked past that old chestnut" A commonly cited theory, viewed by the Oxford English Dictionary as “plausible” and cited by Brewer’s, is that it was coined by Boston comedic actor William Warren Jr., quoting from 1816 English melodrama The Broken Sword by William Dimond. One of the characters in the play is a boor, and when once recounting a tale mentions a cork tree, which is corrected by the character Pablo as “A chestnut. I have heard you tell the tale these 27 times.” This line was then apparently quoted at a dinner party by Warren in response to a boor there, and proved popular. Note that William Warren Sr. had previously played Pablo on stage, but died in 1832, so the phrase was presumably popularized by the son, William Warren Jr.
Questions about old chestnut
- What does old chestnut mean?
- Old chestnut means a well-worn story.
- What part of speech is old chestnut?
- Old chestnut is a noun.
- What is the plural of old chestnut?
- The plural of old chestnut is old chestnuts.
Words near old chestnut in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: old chestnut (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-old chestnut.ogg.
Cite this entry: “old chestnut.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/old_chestnut. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.