Showing results for "past"

• a variation of past tense.

past

American  

[past] / pæst /

adjective

1. gone by or elapsed in time.

   It was a bad time, but it's all past now.

2. of, having existed in, or having occurred during a time previous to the present; bygone.

   the past glories of the Incas.

3. gone by just before the present time; just passed.

   during the past year.

4. ago.

   six days past.

5. having formerly been or served as; previous; earlier.

   three past presidents of the club.

6. Grammar. designating a tense, or other verb formation or construction, that refers to events or states in time gone by.

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noun

pasts plural

1. the time gone by.

   He could remember events far back in the past.

2. the history of a person, nation, etc..

   our country's glorious past.

3. what has existed or has happened at some earlier time.

   Try to forget the past, now that your troubles are over.

4. the events, phenomena, conditions, etc., that characterized an earlier historical period.

   That hat is something out of the past.

5. an earlier period of a person's life, career, etc., that is thought to be of a shameful or embarrassing nature.

   When he left prison, he put his past behind him.

6. Grammar. past tense.

adverb

1. so as to pass by or beyond; by.

   The troops marched past.

preposition

1. beyond in time; later than; after.

   past noon;

   half past six.

2. beyond in space or position; farther on than.

   the house just past the church.

3. in a direction so as to pass by or go beyond.

   We went past the house by mistake.

4. beyond in amount, number, etc..

   past the maximum age for enlisting in the army.

5. beyond the reach, scope, influence, or power of.

   He is past hope of recovery.

past British  

/ pɑːst /

adjective

1. completed, finished, and no longer in existence

   past happiness

2. denoting or belonging to all or a segment of the time that has elapsed at the present moment

   the past history of the world

3. denoting a specific unit of time that immediately precedes the present one

   the past month

4. (prenominal) denoting a person who has held and relinquished an office or position; former

   a past president

5. grammar denoting any of various tenses of verbs that are used in describing actions, events, or states that have been begun or completed at the time of utterance Compare aorist imperfect perfect

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noun

1. the period of time or a segment of it that has elapsed

   forget the past

2. the history, experience, or background of a nation, person, etc

   a soldier with a distinguished past

3. an earlier period of someone's life, esp one that contains events kept secret or regarded as disreputable

4. grammar

   1. a past tense

   2. a verb in a past tense

adverb

1. at a specified or unspecified time before the present; ago

   three years past

2. on or onwards

   I greeted him but he just walked past

preposition

1. beyond in time

   it's past midnight

2. beyond in place or position

   the library is past the church

3. moving beyond; in a direction that passes

   he walked past me

4. beyond or above the reach, limit, or scope of

   his foolishness is past comprehension

5. beyond or above in number or amount

   to count past ten

6. informal unable to perform the tasks one could do when one was younger

7. to consider someone capable of (the action specified)

past Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing past

• live in (the past)
• not put something past someone

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Usage

The past participle of pass is sometimes wrongly spelt past: the time for recriminations has passed (not past )

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• pasts
  plural

Etymology

Origin of past

First recorded in 1250–1300; from Middle English, variant spelling of passed, past participle of pass

Explanation

Past events have already happened — if it happened an Ice Age ago, a century ago, or even a minute ago, it's in the past. They say the past is history and it's true. If you have ever been accused of "living in the past," you cling to what was instead of reveling in what is. If you hear that a person or a rare object in an antique store "has a past," get ready for a colorful story. As an adjective, past describes what is no longer current, like the past president of a club or past fashion craze — it's over: its time has passed.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

past pasts

Their record - one win in the past 16 meetings with England - needs to improve if they want to become a regular top-four side.

From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026

For the past three years, the French group's subsidiary has been funding and organising retraining programs.

From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026

“It is cruel and unacceptable, and it is past time for ICE to start following the law.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026

Flagged papers rose sharply over the past two decades, increasing from about 1 percent in the early 2000s to a peak of more than 16 percent in 2022.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 16, 2026

I never walked past their cot because one of them had a gangrenous foot that she would thrust in the face of anyone who came near.

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom

Married at First Sight Australia stars say the show left them feeling unsafe and unprotected because their on-screen partners had criminal pasts which they were not told about, a BBC investigation can reveal.

From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026

Some female cast members we spoke to told us they had not been informed about their partners' criminal pasts when they were matched.

From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026

Some of them are haunted by their pasts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 10, 2026

The studios gamely went along, ruining the lives of a number of their creative talent who refused to disavow their pasts.

From Salon ● Jan. 1, 2026

In August 1993, after more than fifty years, Ruthie, aka Ruth McBride Jordan, aka Rachel Deborah Shilsky, finally faced the ghosts of her pasts.

From "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother" by James McBride

Related Words

• earlier
• early
• late
• old
• preceding
• previous
• prior
• recent