Word.ws English Dictionary

oldman

oldman is the alternative form of old man.

Meaning of old man

Noun

old man (countable and uncountable, plural old men)

  1. (literally) An elderly man.
    Synonyms:
    codger
    Antonyms:
    old lady
  2. (colloquial) One's father.
    • He smacked me around some. Didn't everybody's old man?
    Synonyms:
    dad, pa, ayr, ba, baba, da, dada, daddio, daddy, father
    Antonyms:
    old lady
  3. (colloquial) A husband, or male significant other, irrespective of age.
    • “[…] Now if that thing is balling—and your old lady or your old man is off somewhere flashing and doesn't want to be touched—well, you get put down on acid, you can be on a bummer for months.”1968, Joan Didion, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem”, in Slouching Towards Bethlehem
    Synonyms:
    hubby
    Antonyms:
    old lady
  4. (slang) One's male employer, irrespective of age.
    Synonyms:
    boss, governor
  5. (slang) A unit's commanding officer, or the commander of a naval vessel, irrespective of age.
  6. (Australia) An Australian Aboriginal elder.
    • Big Paddy nursed his grief in a quiet, mad fury. Then he urged the Old Men to ‘sing out’ those responsible for the death of his son.1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 26

See all 13 meanings of old man

Proper noun capitalized: Oldman

Oldman (plural Oldmans)

  1. An English surname.

Forms of oldman

Noun
pluraloldmen
Proper noun
pluralOldmans
alternative formHoldman

Questions about oldman

What does oldman mean?
Oldman means an English surname.
What is oldman the alternative form of?
Oldman is the alternative form of old man.
What part of speech is oldman?
Oldman is a proper noun.

Words near oldman in the dictionary

  1. Oldland Common
  2. oldline
  3. oldling
  4. oldlings
  5. oldly
  6. oldman
  7. Oldmans
  8. Oldmeldrum
  9. oldmen
  10. oldness
  11. oldnesses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: oldman (page history and authors); Oldman (page history and authors); old man (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: “oldman.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/oldman. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.