there's life in the old dog yet. Even though someone is old, don't underestimate them, they still have sufficient energy to get done what needs to be done. Don't count that person (or company, agency, etc.) out.
The phrase carries in it the assumption that there is something about the dog in question that might suggest that it is too old, outdated or obsolescent to play a significant role. In the case of an individual human having the physical signs of age such as lack of energy, strength, health, or just plain get-up-and-go. When it comes to a corporation or a product we may have to rely on collective perceptions. That may sound abstract, but when you come across an example, the application is obvious. So when a business analyst is quoted in the New York Times as saying “There is no question that AIM is a real network There's life in the old dog yet ” we get it.
There's Life in the Old Dog Yet is also the title of an album by
Irish folk musician Ronnie Drew.
According to an undocumented claim in Wikipedia, “Drew recorded this album of songs about growing old shortly before being diagnosed with throat cancer in 2006.” Talk about irony, and apparently he did so on The Late Late Show. |
1. Cambridge University Press. 2006. Cambridge Idioms Dictionary. 2nd ed. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press.
2. Hansell, Saul, and John Markoff. 2006. Aol to Add Free Phone to Instant Messaging Feature. New York Times, May 5. Accessed Aug 29 2009 from http:// www.nytimes.com/ 2006/ 05/05/ technology /05iht-web.0505 phone.html.
3. Wikipedia contributors. Mar 12 2009. There's Life in the Old Dog Yet. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Accessed Aug 29 2009 from http:// en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ There%27s _Life_in _the_Old _Dog_Yet.
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About the illustrations: Figure 1 is a poster from World War I depicting the British Bulldog apparently having demolished the German menace so thoroughly that all that is left are some specs, boots, a helmet, and a medal. The image is for sale as a poster at allposters.com. The original image is in the public domain.
Figure 2 is a version of the cover of Ronnie Drew's album. The
copyright for this image is most likely owned by either the publisher or the creator of
the work depicted. I believe that the use of scaled-down, low-resolution images of album covers to provide critical commentary on the album qualifies as fair use under
United States
copyright law. |