past participle

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noun Grammar.

a participle with past, perfect, or passive meaning, as fallen, sung, defeated; perfect participle: used in English and other languages in forming the present perfect, pluperfect, and passive and as an adjective.

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Origin of past participle

First recorded in 1790–1800

Words nearby past participle

pastoral theology, pastorate, pastorium, pastorship, pastose, past participle, past perfect, past progressive, pastrami, pastry, pastry blender

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use past participle in a sentence

In their past calls for attacks on Western targets, AQAP has focused on putting bombs on planes, not revenge attacks.
U.S. Spies See Al Qaeda Fingerprints on Paris Massacre|Shane Harris, Nancy A. Youssef|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
In the middle of all of that past suffering and present-day conflict, this Cosby bomb was dropped.
Phylicia Rashad and the Cult of Cosby Truthers|Stereo Williams|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
I gotta say—I think this past year was pretty bad for music.
Coffee Talk with Fred Armisen: On ‘Portlandia,’ Meeting Obama, and Taylor Swift’s Greatness|Marlow Stern|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Many of those who have become cops in New York seem to have ceased to address such minor offenses over the past few days.
Shot Down During the NYPD Slowdown|Michael Daly|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST

RELATED: NYPD Salutes Murdered Officer Wenjian Liu (Photos) Police motorcycles rumbled past.
Funeral Protest Is Too Much for NYPD Union Boss|Michael Daly|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Truth is a torch, but one of enormous size; so that we slink past it in rather a blinking fashion for fear it should burn us.
Pearls of Thought|Maturin M. Ballou
Within the past thirty years civilization has rapidly taken possession of this lovely region.
Among the Sioux|R. J. Creswell
Without the former quality, knowledge of the past is uninstructive; without the latter, it is deceptive.
Pearls of Thought|Maturin M. Ballou
And I finished all with a brief historical account of affairs and events in England for about a hundred years past.
Gulliver's Travels|Jonathan Swift
Venice is a City of the Past, and wears her faded yet queenly robes more gracefully by night than by day.
Glances at Europe|Horace Greeley

British Dictionary definitions for past participle

past participle

noun

a participial form of verbs used to modify a noun that is logically the object of a verb, also used in certain compound tenses and passive forms of the verb in English and other languages

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012