ˈold-time, a.
Also -times.
1. Of, belonging to, or characteristic of the ancient or olden time.
| 1824 in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1825) 495 An old-times chamber it was, sure enough. 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. II. xxii. 216, I took a Bible..and we went through the old-times service. 1888 H. C. Lea Hist. Inquis. I. 422 Respect for the old-time prejudices of the Church. 1894 Archæol. Jrnl. Mar. 51 A piece of old-time folk-lore. |
2. a. Pertaining to or characteristic of an earlier or former time.
| 1870 ‘Mark Twain’ in Buffalo Express 1 Jan. 2/6 Conrad's color came back to his cheeks and his old-time vivacity to his eyes. 1936 F. Clune Roaming round Darling xiv. 120 Whitney, old-time driver for Cobb and Co.'s coaches (later a grazier), planted here a score of fig-trees. 1975 Nature 29 May 360/2 What they have is a lot of old-time researchers who are accustomed to pursuing their own interests. |
b. In ballroom dancing, applied to styles of dance and music fashionable in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Also in form old(e) tyme. Also absol. as n.
| 1887 E. Scott Grace & Folly iv. 64 It may not be uninteresting to enquire a little into the nature of some of the old-time dances. 1929 Radio Times 8 Nov. 389/2 Other records were... Old Time Favourites, the London Orchestra. 1933 Auden Dance of Death 11 Select partners for an old-time waltz. 1947 J. R. Gillespie (title) Old tyme dancing. 1950 A. Wilson Such Darling Dodos 116 Derek's crazy to take up dancing in a big way again. He adores all this old-time dancing. 1952 [see drag v. 1 e]. 1960 D. Potter Glittering Coffin iii. 43 The primary school..is opened only for occasional old-time dances. 1967 O. Norton Now lying Dead iii. 54 Tuesdays he stays at home because that's Her night for her Old Time. 1974 Radio Times 11 Apr. 52/3 9.2 Time for Old Time in Radio 2 Ballroom. 1975 R. Butler Where all Girls are Sweeter vi. 75 ‘It's kind of romantic, really.’.. ‘Like Old Tyme dancing on BBC radio, you mean?’ |
So old-ˈtime-like a., old-fashioned (U.S.); old-ˈtimer, one whose experience goes back to old times; one of long standing in a place or position; an old-fashioned person or thing (orig. U.S.); old-ˈtiminess, old-fashioned character.
| 1888 New Princeton Rev. Jan. 122 Most of us ‘old-timers’..are poor now. 1889 Chicago Advance 24 Jan., A small hotel, recommended to us as being more old-time-like than the others. 1882 W. H. Bishop in Harper's Mag. Dec. 47/1 A few swarthy, lantern-jawed old-timers hang about the corners. 1887 Blackw. Mag. Feb. 224/1 A picture whose old-timiness would have thrown a Boston novelist into ecstasy. 1894 Outing (U.S.) XXIV. 34/1 A cutter of some six to eight tons..a regular old-timer. 1910 [see fest]. 1922 [see animal A. 6]. 1928 Daily Mail 25 July 2/3 Many types are represented. There is..the old-timer, who knows more about Oxford than the inhabitants of the city themselves. 1928 D. H. Lawrence Woman who rode Away 60 But he was an old-timer miner. 1929 A. Woollcott in New Yorker 4 May 44/2 The big walnut tree that was an old-timer even in her day. 1939 Sun (Baltimore) 4 Apr. 12/7 Remarks about this type of vessel seem to have struck a responsive chord in the breasts of several old-timers. 1942 ‘M. Innes’ Daffodil Affairs ii. ii. 46 You ought to meet some of the old-timers there, Mr Wine. 1962 Coast to Coast 1961–62 46 ‘Well thanks for the welcome, old-timer,’..Marlett said. 1966 Listener 10 Mar. 344/2, I am not sure..that some old-timers might not welcome a return to the traditional style of the Promenade Concerts. 1973 R. L. Simon Big Fix (1974) xviii. 146, I raised the hoe... ‘Sorry old timer,’ I said and brought it down on the back of his neck. 1978 Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts CXXVI. 194/1 This may seem familiar stuff to some of you old-timers. |