Word.ws English Dictionary

old wine in a new bottle

old wine in a new bottle noun: an existing concept or institution offered as though it were a new one.

Noun

old wine in a new bottle (uncountable)

  1. (idiomatic) An existing concept or institution offered as though it were a new one.
    • Finally, some critics argue that evolutionary psychology is old wine in a new bottle — the old instinct theory in a new package.2003, Stephen M Colarelli, No Best Way
    • Police reform advocate Robert Gangi called the plan “old wine in a new bottle” that relied “mainly on punitive law enforcement tactics”.2022 February 6, Lauren Gambino, quoting Robert Gangi, “Can Biden tackle rising crime without abandoning police reform promise?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

old wine in a new bottle meaning in Persian and Vietnamese

old wine in a new bottle in Persian

existing concept or institution presented as if new
ارایه ایده ای کهنه در لباسی نو

old wine in a new bottle in Vietnamese

existing concept or institution presented as if new
bình mới rượu cũ

Forms of old wine in a new bottle

alternative formold wine in new bottles

Origin of old wine in a new bottle

A reference to the parable of Jesus of New Wine into Old Wineskins, Matthew 9:14–17, Mark 2:21–22, and Luke 5:33–39.

Questions about old wine in a new bottle

What does old wine in a new bottle mean?
Old wine in a new bottle means an existing concept or institution offered as though it were a new one.
What is old wine in a new bottle in Persian?
Old wine in a new bottle in Persian is ارایه ایده ای کهنه در لباسی نو. See Old wine in a new bottle meaning in Persian.
What part of speech is old wine in a new bottle?
Old wine in a new bottle is a noun.

Words near old wine in a new bottle in the dictionary

  1. Old West
  2. Old West Norse
  3. Old Whittington
  4. old wife
  5. Old Windsor
  6. old wine in a new bottle
  7. old wine in new bottles
  8. old wise tale
  9. old wives
  10. old wives' tale
  11. old wives' tales

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: old wine in a new bottle (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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