old hat

old hat

Unoriginal, out of date, or old-fashioned. Jokes like that were edgy a while ago, but they're just old hat at this point. People think my flip phone is a bit old hat, but it still works after all these years!
See also: hat, old
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

old hat

Fig. old-fashioned; outmoded. That's a silly idea. It's old hat. Hardly anybody uses typewriters anymore. That's just old hat.
See also: hat, old
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

old hat

COMMON If something is old hat, it is unoriginal or out of date. The technology is a bit old hat nowadays. I think that kind of painting's a bit old hat now, isn't it? I wanted to do something quite different. Note: This expression may have developed because in the times when it was usual for women to wear hats, the fashions in hats used to change very quickly.
See also: hat, old
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

old hat

used to refer to something considered passé and therefore banal or uninteresting. informal
See also: hat, old
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

ˌold ˈhat

something that is old-fashioned and no longer interesting: This is supposed to be a new method of learning English, but frankly, it’s a bit old hat. OPPOSITE: all the rage
See also: hat, old
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

old hat

n. an old-fashioned thing or person; an outmoded thing or person. That’s just old hat. This is the modern world!
See also: hat, old
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

old hat

Outmoded, old-fashioned, uninteresting. The term, it has been suggested by several writers, comes from the fact that hats go out of style long before they are actually worn out. The term began to be used figuratively during the late nineteenth century. Shaw used it in Platform and Pulpit (1932): “If I mention that sort of thing I am told that is old hat.”
See also: hat, old
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • make old bones
  • old fogey
  • fogey
  • fogy
  • an old fogey/fogy
  • cat
  • high old time
  • fud
  • fuddy-duddy
  • bolt bucket
References in classic literature
No one seems to like the offer, and the umpire is just coming down, when a queer old hat, something like a doctor of divinity's shovel, is chucked on to the stage and an elderly, quiet man steps out, who has been watching the play, saying he should like to cross a stick wi' the prodigalish young chap.
Tom Browns Schooldays
There is in an old house a friendly adaptation to the human character, as there is in an old hat a friendly adaptation to the human head.
Man And Wife
The latter I can afford, as I have a good supply of it, but it wounds me to the quick to see my dear old hats and trousers sinking, prematurely worn and aged, beneath the cold world's blasts and snows.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow
Hannah, who had carried wood, made a fire, and stopped up the broken panes with old hats and her own cloak.
Little Women
I gave her all my old clothes, even my old hats, though she always wears her Breton headdress.
Alexanders Bridge
It was quite a wilderness, and there were old melon-frames and cucumber-frames in it, which seemed in their decline to have produced a spontaneous growth of weak attempts at pieces of old hats and boots, with now and then a weedy offshoot into the likeness of a battered saucepan.
Great Expectations
However, when Harbet realises that his dearly loved hat has become old hat, he tries to keep up with his fashionable peers.
Gravett, Emily: Old Hat
Warmly told in full detail and lavishly illustrated, "The Magic Hat" tells a story of a fantastic old hat, which became the inspiration for a great healing miracle of love and imagination, with the help of a kind, compassionate nurse who persisted in her own vision of miraculous healing and joyful living, even for a badly injured child who had lost the will to live.
The Magic Hat
As Gotham's watering holes embraced the new concoction, the original cocktail soon became old hat and known as the Old Fashioned.
The Manhattan: The Story of the First Modern Cocktail
WHILE realising that the green road to nowhere is old hat now and recognising that in principle at least Kirklees Council seems to be in favour of cycle lanes, it is clear that this principle is often in name only.
Caring for cycle lanes
The story of two teens spending a week with the creepy grandparents they've never met unfolds in a mockumentary style that's new for the filmmaker and old hat for horror auds.
The Visit
The hand-drawn animation may look old hat but they gel perfectly with a story borne from Celtic folklore.
SONG OF THE SEA (PG) ....
But down the line time will provoke Folk to view our ways as one big joke As fashions date they become old hat Then the young set think they're 'Where it's at' They'll sure believe, (as we earlier folk,) Our bygone ways are a music hall joke Each age group flaunts new styles with passion It's a pity that war never went out of fashion Bill Backshall, Lydiate
OLD FASHIONED WAYS; Your Poem
Lebanon Top 5: Things You Better Avoid In Lebanon To those who live there, these things are old hat. But for travellers heading to Lebanon, this list is a must read.
Top Five things to avoid while visiting Lebanon
OLD HAT Sindy Their hearts no longer leap on Christmas morning when they open their stocking and find a selection of themed outfits including - if they are really lucky - a whole card of tiny plastic shoes.
Will Sindy be dumped?