Word.ws English Dictionary

Old Dart

Old Dart proper noun: britain, England, London, or Ireland; the Old Country.

Proper noun

Old Dart

  1. (Australia, New Zealand) Britain, England, London, or Ireland; the Old Country.
    • J. A. W. has still, I am persuaded, any amount of friends in the Old Dart.1872, Pen-name Auld Lang Syne, Original Correspondence, Ovens and Murray Advertiser, Beechworth, Victoria, 20 July 1872, page 2
    • You recollect that when I left the Colony to visit the old dart, besides the usual allowance granted...1876, Magguffin, Random Notes, Oamaru Mail, 24 June 1876, page 2
    Synonyms:
    the old country
  2. (UK, colloquial) Dartmouth Royal Navy College.

Examples of Old Dart in a sentence

  • The ‘Old Dart’ mattered little to German Australians but the empire was another matter and Australia was their home.2003, John Williams, German Anzacs And The First World War, page 9:
  • Marsh′s experiences during his first days in the Old Dart were no different from most Australian cricketers′.2004, Mark Browning, Rod Marsh: A Life in Cricket, page 55:

Synonyms of Old Dart

  • the old country

Origin of Old Dart

Possibly from the river Dart in Devonshire which enters the sea at Dartmouth, location of a Royal Navy College. Royal Navy officers who were returning to England at the end of a foreign tour of duty referred to going back to the "Old Dart" for further training. Alternatively a variation of "old dirt" (compare old sod).

Questions about Old Dart

What does Old Dart mean?
Old Dart means britain, England, London, or Ireland; the Old Country.
How do you use Old Dart in a sentence?
The ‘Old Dart’ mattered little to German Australians but the empire was another matter and Australia was their home.
What part of speech is Old Dart?
Old Dart is a proper noun.

Words near Old Dart in the dictionary

  1. Old Crow
  2. Old Cumnock
  3. Old Czech
  4. Old Dalby
  5. Old Danish
  6. Old Dart
  7. old days
  8. old dear
  9. old dears
  10. Old Deer
  11. Old Delhi

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Old Dart (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-Old Dart.ogg.

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