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people you have known and been friends with for many years
She invited all her old friends to the reunion.
She invited people she has known for a long time to the gathering.
Old friends often understand each other without words.
Long-term friends often share an intuitive understanding.
The phrase emphasizes the duration and familiarity of the friendship, not the age of the people involved.
Do not confuse 'old' with age; it refers to the duration of the friendship, not the friends' ages.
In sentences like 'We are old friends,' it means long-term friendship, not that the friends are old.
The phrase combines 'old' (from Old English 'eald', meaning long-standing or ancient) and 'friends' (from Old English 'frēond', meaning one who is attached to another by affection or esteem). The term 'old friends' as a phrase has been used since at least the 17th century to denote enduring relationships.
The phrase does not imply the friends are elderly; it refers to the length of the friendship. It is commonly used in both casual and sentimental contexts.