(as) old as Methuselah

Very old. An allusion to the biblical figure Methuselah, said to have died at the age of 969. Oh, my granny is old as Methuselah—she can't hear us. Why don't we ever sing new songs? Those hymns are as old as Methuselah. She had a phonograph when she was a child? She must be as old as Methuselah.

*old as Methuselah

very old. (Of a person; refers to a biblical figure held to have lived to be 969. *Also: as ~.) Old Professor Stone is as old as Methusehah but still gets around with a cane.

See also: Methuselah, old

See also:

References in classic literature

"Now, you are my witness, Miss Summerson, I say I don't care-but if he was to come to our house with his great, shining, lumpy forehead night after night till he was as old as Methuselah, I wouldn't have anything to say to him.

View in context

You will be as old as Methuselah, if you wait till I am your wife.

View in context

'A man may live to be as old as Methuselah,' said Mr.

View in context

At that time he looked to be as old as Methuselah but then strangely, his appearance never altered throughout the succeeding decades until the time of his death.

Letter: Your Say - Fond memories of 'Father' Oliver

I calculate that by the end of the season I will be as old as Methuselah.

YourShout: 88th birthday

Spanning millennia, from a revisionist Garden of Eden to the world of 30,000 A.D.--where people as old as Methuselah wear togas and willfully evolve their own brains to think great thoughts--the cycle has had only a handful of productions since the London mounting of 1923, when Edith Evans played the Serpent, Oracle and She-Ancient.

Back-To-Back Methuselah

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