tried and true
Known to be reliably effective from previous experience. Hyphenated if used as a modifier before a noun. I've got a way of rustling up more business that's tried and true. I prefer to use my own tried-and-true methods rather than experimenting with others that I don't know.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
tried and true
trustworthy; dependable. (Hyphenated before nominals.) The method I use to cure the hiccups is tried and true. Finally, her old tried-and-true methods failed because she hadn't fine-tuned them to the times.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
tried and true
Tested and proved to be worthy or reliable, as in Let me deal with it-my method is tried and true. [Mid-1900s]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
tried and true
proved effective or reliable by experience. 1967 Listener Miss Aukin had the good sense to use the tried and true concealment gambit by which eventually two young officers, bent on cuckolding a greengrocer, were compelled to hide in the same grandfather clock.
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
tried and true
Tested and proven effective. Although this term has the archaic sound of a medieval contest, it dates only from the twentieth century. William Faulkner used it in A Fable (1954): “His enslavement . . . from which he will emancipate himself by that one ancient tried and true method.”
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer