N. oldness, age, antiquity, cobwebs of antiquity, maturity, decline, decay, senility, seniority, eldership, primogeniture, archaism, thing of the past, relic of the past, megatherium, sanskrit, tradition, prescription, custom, immemorial usage, common law

V. be old, have had its day, have seen its day, become old, age, fade, senesce

Adj. old, ancient, antique, of long standing, time-honored, venerable, elder, eldest, firstborn, prime, primitive, primeval, primigenous, paleolontological, paleontologic, paleoanthropological, paleoanthropic, paleolithic, primordial, primordinate, aboriginal, diluvian, antediluvian, protohistoric, prehistoric, antebellum, colonial, precolumbian, patriarchal, preadamite, paleocrystic, fossil, paleozoolical, paleozoic, preglacial, antemundane, archaic, classic, medieval, pre-raphaelite, ancestral, black-letter, immemorial, traditional, prescriptive, customary, whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, inveterate, rooted, antiquated, of other times, rococo, of the old school, after-age, obsolete, out of date, out of fashion, out of it, stale, old-fashioned, behind the age, old-world, exploded, gone out, gone by, passe, run out, senile, time worn, crumbling, secondhand, old as the hills, old as methuselah, old as adam, old as history, archeozoic, proterozoic, paleozoic, mesozoic, cenozoic, precambrian, cambrian, ordovician, silurian, devonian, mississippian, pennsylvanian, permian, triassic, jurassic, cretaceous, tertiary, paleogene, neocene, quaternary, paleocene, eocene, oligocene, miocene, pliocene, pleistocene, recent

Adv. since the world was made, since the year one, since the days of methuselah

Phr. vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi

N. deterioration, debasement, wane, ebb, recession, retrogradation, decrease, degeneracy, degeneration, degenerateness, degradation, depravation, depravement, devolution, depravity, demoralization, retrogression, masochism, impairment, inquination|, injury, damage, loss, detriment, delaceration|, outrage, havoc, inroad, ravage, scath, perversion, prostitution, vitiation, discoloration, oxidation, pollution, defoedation|, poisoning, venenation|, leaven, contamination, canker, corruption, adulteration, alloy, decline, declension, declination, decadence, decadency, falling off, caducity, decrepitude, decay, dilapidation, ravages of time, wear and tear, corrosion, erosion, moldiness, rottenness, moth and rust, dry rot, blight, marasmus, atrophy, collapse, disorganization, delabrement &c. (destruction), 162, aphid, aphis, plant louse, puceron, vinefretter, vinegrub, wreck, mere wreck, honeycomb, magni nominis umbra, jade, plug, rackabones, skate, tackey, tacky

V. be worse, be deteriorated, become worse, become deteriorated, have seen better days, deteriorate, degenerate, fall off, wane, ebb, retrograde - decline, droop, go down, go downhill, go from bad to worse, go farther and fare worse, jump out of the frying pan into the fire, run to seed, go to seed, run to waste swale|, sweal|, lapse, be the worse for, sphacelate, break, break down, spring a leak, crack, start, shrivel, fade, go off, wither, molder, rot, rankle, decay, go bad, go to decay, fall into decay, "fall into the sear and yellow leaf", rust, crumble, shake, totter, totter to its fall, perish, die, deteriorate, weaken, put back, set back, taint, infect, contaminate, poison, empoison, envenom, canker, corrupt, exulcerate|, pollute, vitiate, inquinate|, debase, embase|, denaturalize, denature, leaven, deflower, debauch, defile, deprave, degrade, ulcerate, stain, discolor, alloy, adulterate, sophisticate, tamper with, prejudice, pervert, prostitute, demoralize, brutalize, render vicious, embitter, acerbate, exacerbate, aggravate, injure, impair, labefy, damage, harm, hurt, shend|, scath|, scathe, spoil, mar, despoil, dilapidate, waste, overrun, ravage, pillage, wound, stab, pierce, maim, lame, surbate|, cripple, hough, hamstring, hit between wind and water, scotch, mangle, mutilate, disfigure, blemish, deface, warp, blight, rot, corrode, erode, wear away, wear out, gnaw, gnaw at the root of, sap, mine, undermine, shake, sap the foundations of, break up, disorganize, dismantle, dismast, destroy, damnify, do one's worst, knock down, deal a blow to, play havoc with, play sad havoc with, play the mischief with, play the deuce with, play the very devil with, play havoc among, play sad havoc among, play the mischief among, play the deuce among, play the very devil among, decimate

Adj. unimproved &c. (improve ), deteriorated, altered, altered for the worse, injured, sprung, withering, spoiling, on the wane, on the decline, tabid, degenerate, marescent, worse, the worse for, all the worse for, out of repair, out of tune, imperfect, the worse for wear, battered, weathered, weather-beaten, stale, passe, shaken, dilapidated, frayed, faded, wilted, shabby, secondhand, threadbare, worn, worn to a thread, worn to a shadow, worn to the stump, worn to rags, reduced, reduced to a skeleton, far gone, tacky, decayed, moth-eaten, worm-eaten, mildewed, rusty, moldy, spotted, seedy, time-worn, moss-grown, discolored, effete, wasted, crumbling, moldering, rotten, cankered, blighted, tainted, depraved, decrepid, decrepit, broke, busted, broken, out of commission, hors de combat, out of action, broken down, done, done for, done up, worn out, used up, finished, beyond saving, fit for the dust hole, fit for the wastepaper basket, past work, at a low ebb, in a bad way, on one's last legs, undermined, deciduous, nodding to its fall, tottering &c, (dangerous) 665: past cure, fatigued, retrograde, deleterious

Phr. out of the frying pan into the fire, agrescit medendo, "what a falling off was there!"

N. danger, peril, insecurity, jeopardy, risk, hazard, venture, precariousness, slipperiness, instability, defenselessness &c

V. be in danger, be exposed to danger, run into danger, incur danger, encounter danger, run a risk, lay oneself open to, lean on a broken reed, trust to a broken reed, feel the ground sliding from under one, have to run for it, have the chances against one, have the odds against one, face long odds, be in deep trouble, be between a rock and a hard place, hang by a thread, totter, sleep on a volcano, stand on a volcano, sit on a barrel of gunpowder, live in a glass house, bring in danger, place in danger, put in danger, place in jeopardy, put in jeopardy, endanger, expose to danger, imperil, jeopard, jeopardize, compromise, sail too near the wind, adventure, risk, hazard, venture, stake, set at hazard, run the gauntlet, engage in a forlorn hope, threaten danger, run one hard, lay a trap for

Adj. in danger, exposure, endangered, vulnerability, fraught with danger, vulnerable point, dangerous, heel of achilles, hazardous, forlorn hope, perilous, leap in the dark, parlous, road to ruin, periculous|, faciles descensus averni, unsafe, hairbreadth escape, unprotected &c. (safe, protect ), cause for alarm, insecure, source of danger, untrustworthy, rock ahead, built upon sand, breakers ahead, on a sandy basis, storm brewing, wildcat, clouds in the horizon, defenseless, clouds gathering, fenceless, warning, guardless, alarm, harborless, apprehension, unshielded, vulnerable, expugnable, exposed, open to, aux abois, at bay, on the wrong side of the wall, on a lee shore, on the rocks, at stake, in question, precarious, critical, ticklish, slippery, slippy, hanging by a thread, with a halter round one's neck, between the hammer and the anvil, between scylla and charybdis, between a rock and a hard place, between the devil and the deep blue sea, between two fires, on the edge of a precipice, on the brink of a precipice, on the verge of a precipice, on the edge of a volcano, in the lion's den, on slippery ground, under fire, not out of the wood, unwarned, unadmonished, unadvised, unprepared, off one's guard, tottering, unstable, unsteady, shaky, top-heavy, tumbledown, ramshackle, crumbling, waterlogged, helpless, guideless, in a bad way, reduced to the last extremity, at the last extremity, trembling in the balance, nodding to its fall, threatening, ominous, illomened, alarming, explosive, adventurous, (bold) 861

Phr. incidit in scyllam qui vult vitare charybdim, nam tua res agitur paries dum proximus ardet