English

Alternative forms

• same old same-old; same old, same old; same-old, same-old; same-old same-old; same old-same old

Noun

same old same old ‎(uncountable)

1. (idiomatic) A familiar, uninteresting, or tedious situation, activity, narrative, or set of facts.
   • 1970, George Cain, Blueschild Baby, McGraw-Hill, p. 22:

     "Yeah you were a kid last time I saw you. Heard you'd got flagged. What you doing now?"

     "Same old, same old," I reply.

   • 1990, Jennifer Orsi, "Incumbents," St. Petersburg Times, 3 Nov., p. 4A (retrieved 7 Jan. 2010):

     "People get so tired of hearing promises, promises and promises, and then when they get elected it's the same old, same old," Browning said.

   • 2007, Richard Schickel, "I'm Not There: Deconstructing Dylan," Time, 21 Nov.:

     Most basically, this is the same old-same old — visionary artist struggles successfully to realize his particular vision, gets famous, gets laid, gets in trouble with the whole celebrity thing, tries to escape the demands of his exigent fans . . . ends up sort of beloved, sort of intact, but sort of unfulfilled, too.

   • 2011, Mark Liberman, "Speech-based lie detection in Russia," Language Log, June 8:

     Pending future revelations, I'm going to assume that the present is like the past, and that this is more of the same old same-old.

Synonyms

• same old story
• same old thing