no spring chicken
idiom

- a person well past youth; an old person no longer young or youthful

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms

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ORIGIN

In the early 1700s, farmers found that chickens born in the spring brought better prices than ‘old’ ones that had gone through the winter. When farmers tried to sell the old birds as ‘new spring born’, buyers complained that they were ‘no spring chicken’. The first recorded use of the phrase in its figurative meaning was in 1906.

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FAMOUS QUOTE

“Age is a matter of mind over matter. If you don’t mind it doesn’t matter”.

Mark Twain

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SYNONYMS

aged, elderly, over-the-hill, senior, long in the tooth, grey, past it, advanced in years, getting on, NO SPRING CHICKEN, venerable, been around, past one’s sell-by date, in one’s dotage, not as young as one was

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PRACTICE OWAD in an English conversation, discuss something like:

“Martin’s NO SPRING CHICKEN, but he plays a fine game of tennis.”

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