old hat
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Down on Old Compton Street, the Two ‘ I's, hailed as the home of British rock, because Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard had once drifted through its doors, was old hat.
Let's face it, make - up is old hat
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
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 “old hat” mean?
Something that is outdated or no longer interesting Literally: a hat that is old
Is “old hat” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.