olds
- 1People framed as no longer young: anyone older than the young crowd being addressed, often middle-aged or elderly.
The olds never understand why we communicate almost entirely through memes.
At the reunion, the olds reminisced while the kids hovered by their phones.
Similaroldies
Oppositeyoungsters, kids
Note
Generational banter in which "old" is simply whatever the speaker's crowd is not, so the line moves with the audience. It usually comes with the: the olds. The same word can sting or wink. Aimed at others it mocks, but turned on oneself (us olds, I'm just an old) it disarms. Unlike the word for one's parents, it happily allows a singular, an old.
- 2A person's parents, in casual British speech.
He still lives with his olds while saving up for a flat.
Her olds came down from Manchester for the graduation.
Note
British slang that turns the adjective into a noun: old plus -s, on the pattern of old folks and the old man. It almost always takes a possessive (my olds, her olds) and stays plural, naming both parents together. It belongs to the same easy, affectionate register as the folks. Use it among friends, and keep it out of anything formal, where it would sound flippant.
- 3Information that has lost its freshness and can no longer count as news.
By the time the rumor reached him, it was already olds.
Calling it breaking news is generous; it's olds by now.
Oppositenews
Note
A separate joke with its own origin, unrelated to the olds as people. It was coined as the humorous reverse of news, and it behaves like news: it is uncountable and takes no article (it's already olds). It lands best as a punchline set against news itself, deflating a story someone is presenting as fresh.
Practice
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Origins
From "old" plus the ending "-s"; compare "old folks" and "old man".
Coined as a humorous opposite to the word "news".