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

As his condition has deteriorated in the past few days, opposition leaders, activists, Bollywood actors and musicians have called on Wangchuk to end his fast.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

During past foodborne outbreaks, some consumers changed their eating habits — though those changes were rarely lasting, Cuit noted.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026

BlackRock has been plowing tens of billions of dollars into data-center investments over the past year, including a $40 billion deal to buy Aligned Data Centers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

Jean-Baptiste Faivre, French charge d'affaires in Syria, said "this heritage is extremely important, not only for Syria's past but also for its future".

From Barron's ● Jul. 20, 2026

So she decided to forget about the past and concentrate on the future.

From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Catalogs have long had a formative impact on would-be consumers, offering a sense of aspiration on behalf of a future self, or a peek into the pasts of their loved ones.

From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026

This is, to put it plainly, the stuff of well-considered emotional rawness, painstaking portraiture of our collective pasts.

From Salon ● May 12, 2026

Some of them are haunted by their pasts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 10, 2026

It was vital for the police to know if all those injuries could have been caused by someone defending themselves - they needed to understand more about the two men's pasts.

From BBC ● Feb. 28, 2026

All were wealthy and at the peaks of their careers, but all also bore the scars of nineteenth-century life, their pasts full of wrecked rail cars, fevers, and the premature deaths of loved ones.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

Related Words

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