new wine in an old wineskin
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Incompatible ideas or innovations in an outdated system
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
các ý tưởng hoặc đổi mới không tương thích trong hệ thống cũ
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: new wine put into an old container
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
You can't put new wine in an old wineskin and expect it to work
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “new wine in an old wineskin” mean?
Incompatible ideas or innovations in an outdated system Literally: new wine put into an old container
Is “new wine in an old wineskin” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.