old wine in a new bottle
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Something old or familiar presented as new or innovative
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Một thứ cũ được trình bày như mới hoặc sáng tạo
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: old wine in a new container
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The new policy is just old wine in a new bottle
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 “old wine in a new bottle” mean?
Something old or familiar presented as new or innovative Literally: old wine in a new container
Is “old wine in a new bottle” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.