past
gone by or elapsed in time: It was a bad time, but it's all past now.
of, having existed in, or having occurred during a time previous to the present; bygone: the past glories of the Incas.
gone by just before the present time; just passed: during the past year.
ago: six days past.
having formerly been or served as; previous; earlier: three past presidents of the club.
Grammar. designating a tense, or other verb formation or construction, that refers to events or states in time gone by.
the time gone by: He could remember events far back in the past.
the history of a person, nation, etc.: our country's glorious past.
what has existed or has happened at some earlier time: Try to forget the past, now that your troubles are over.
the events, phenomena, conditions, etc., that characterized an earlier historical period: That hat is something out of the past.
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.
Grammar. past tense.
so as to pass by or beyond; by: The troops marched past.
beyond in time; later than; after: past noon;half past six.
beyond in space or position; farther on than: the house just past the church.
in a direction so as to pass by or go beyond: We went past the house by mistake.
beyond in amount, number, etc.: past the maximum age for enlisting in the army.
beyond the reach, scope, influence, or power of: He is past hope of recovery.
Origin of past
1Words that may be confused with past
Words Nearby past
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use past in a sentence
Tools built on machine learning can decode and learn from trends, suggest actions based on history and past experiences, and provide accurate analytics to help you develop strategies and take actions that yield.
Five ways to use machine learning in digital marketing | Birbahadur Kathayat | February 12, 2021 | Search Engine WatchIf your rankings changed in the past 24-hours or so, it might be related to this change.
Google passage ranking now live in US English search results | Barry Schwartz | February 11, 2021 | Search Engine LandPerhaps the NFL can begin to address its segregated past by naming players who were kept out of the league because of their skin color, such as Kenny Washington, to the Hall of Fame.
Kenny Washington’s time has come. NFL needs to recognize the man who broke the color barrier. | Fred Bowen | February 10, 2021 | Washington PostThe institute provided “detailed descriptions of the center’s research both present and past on all projects involving bats and coronaviruses and more advanced projects,” Embarek said.
WHO team in Wuhan dismisses lab leak theory, continues hunt for intermediary coronavirus host | Gerry Shih | February 9, 2021 | Washington PostEven though his bus route took him past closed and boarded-up businesses every day, he finally recognized the magnitude of the loss that had been accumulating all around him.
‘Oh, we’re still in this.’ The pandemic wall is here. | Maura Judkis | February 9, 2021 | Washington Post
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 | THE DAILY BEASTIn 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 | THE DAILY BEASTI 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 | THE DAILY BEASTMany of those who have become cops in New York seem to have ceased to address such minor offenses over the past few days.
RELATED: NYPD Salutes Murdered Officer Wenjian Liu (Photos) Police motorcycles rumbled past.
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. BallouWithin the past thirty years civilization has rapidly taken possession of this lovely region.
Among the Sioux | R. J. CreswellWithout the former quality, knowledge of the past is uninstructive; without the latter, it is deceptive.
Pearls of Thought | Maturin M. BallouAnd I finished all with a brief historical account of affairs and events in England for about a hundred years past.
Gulliver's Travels | Jonathan SwiftVenice 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
/ (pɑːst) /
completed, finished, and no longer in existence: past happiness
denoting or belonging to all or a segment of the time that has elapsed at the present moment: the past history of the world
denoting a specific unit of time that immediately precedes the present one: the past month
(prenominal) denoting a person who has held and relinquished an office or position; former: a past president
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 (def. 4), perfect (def. 8)
the past the period of time or a segment of it that has elapsed: forget the past
the history, experience, or background of a nation, person, etc: a soldier with a distinguished past
an earlier period of someone's life, esp one that contains events kept secret or regarded as disreputable
grammar
a past tense
a verb in a past tense
at a specified or unspecified time before the present; ago: three years past
on or onwards: I greeted him but he just walked past
beyond in time: it's past midnight
beyond in place or position: the library is past the church
moving beyond; in a direction that passes: he walked past me
beyond or above the reach, limit, or scope of: his foolishness is past comprehension
beyond or above in number or amount: to count past ten
past it informal unable to perform the tasks one could do when one was younger
not put it past someone to consider someone capable of (the action specified)
Origin of past
1usage For past
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
Other Idioms and Phrases with past
In addition to the idioms beginning with past
- past master
- past one's prime
also see:
- live in (the past)
- not put something past someone
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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