Adage
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 An old saying which has obtained credit by long use.
"He describes the operation thus: "The heavy ram employed to impart the finishing strokes, hoisted up with double purchase and snail's pace to the summit of the Piling Engine, and then falling down like a thunderbolt on the head of the devoted timber, driving it perhaps a single half inch in to the stratum below, is well calculated to put to the test the virtue of patience, while it illustrates the old adage of—slow and sure.""
- 2 a condensed but memorable saying embodying some important fact of experience that is taken as true by many people wordnet
- 3 An old saying which has been overused or considered a cliché; a trite maxim.
"Like the poore Cat i’ th’ Addage."
Example
More examples"Dorcon, having thus been rescued from the jaws of the dogs and not, as the old adage has it, from those of the wolf, went home to nurse himself; while Daphnis and Chloe were occupied until nightfall in the difficult task of collecting their sheep and goats, which being terrified by the sight of the wolfskin and the barking of the dogs had dispersed in different directions."
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French adage, from Latin adā̆gium.
Related phrases
More for "adage"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.