From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishold habits die hardold habits die hardHABITused to say that it is difficult to make people change their attitudes or behaviour She knew it probably wasn’t necessary anymore, but old habits die hard. → habit
Examples from the Corpus
old habits die hard• It was probably unnecessary, she thought, but old habits died hard.• Things were going well, but old habits die hard.• But old habits die hard, and Apple has shown a proclivity to chase market share while hand-wringing over shrinking gross margins. 