Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective No longer current; gone by; over.
- adjective Having existed or occurred in an earlier time; bygone.
- adjective Earlier than the present time; ago.
- adjective Just gone by or elapsed.
- adjective Having served formerly in a given capacity, especially an official one.
- adjective Grammar Of, relating to, or being a verb tense or form used to express an action or condition prior to the time it is expressed.
- noun The time before the present.
- noun Previous background, career, experiences, and activities.
- noun A former period of someone's life kept secret or thought to be shameful.
- noun The past tense.
- noun A verb form in the past tense.
- adverb So as to pass by or go beyond.
- preposition Beyond in time; later than or after.
- preposition Beyond in position; farther than.
- preposition Beyond the power, scope, extent, or influence of.
- preposition Beyond in development or appropriateness.
- preposition Beyond the number or amount of.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Beyond.
- Beyond in position; further than; also, by and beyond: as, the house stands a little past the junction.
- Beyond the reach of; at a point that precludes or makes (something) impossible or improbable; out of the reach, scope, or influence of: as, past redemption; past all sense of shame; past comprehension.
- Beyond in number or amount; above; more than; exceeding.
- Beyond the enjoyment of; over and done with.
- By; so as to pass and go beyond.
- Gone by; belonging to a time previous to this; not present nor future: as, past time: one's past life.
- Hence In the predicate, ago.
- Spent; ended; accomplished; existing no more; over and done with.
- That has completed a full term and is now retired: as, a past (or passed) master in free-masonry. See
master . - That indicates or notes past time: as, a past participle; the past tense.
- noun The time that has preceded the present; a former or bygone time, or the events of that time; that part of the history, life, or experiences of a person or thing that is passed: as, to forget the past; an unfortunate past.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A former time or state; a state of things gone by.
- adverb By; beyond.
- adjective Of or pertaining to a former time or state; neither present nor future; gone by; elapsed; ended; spent
- adjective See under
Master . - preposition Beyond, in position, or degree; further than; beyond the reach or influence of.
- preposition Beyond, in time; after.
- preposition rare Above; exceeding; more than.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The
period oftime that hasalready happened, in contrast to thepresent and thefuture . - noun grammar The
past tense . - adverb in a direction that passes
- preposition
beyond in place, quantity or time
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective earlier than the present time; no longer current
- noun a verb tense that expresses actions or states in the past
- noun a earlier period in someone's life (especially one that they have reason to keep secret)
- noun the time that has elapsed
- adjective of a person who has held and relinquished a position or office
- adverb so as to pass a given point
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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While past performance would definitely seem to favor the Steelers, wise investors know that past performance is not a guarantee of results.
Investment Lessons From The Steelers And Packers Erik Davidson 2011
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I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to all our people, both black and white, who, in the past year and before, made a contribution, however small, towards the new advances of our country further away from its painful past
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On the contrary, their impression would naturally be, that the past was, essentially different from the present, or why was it _past_?
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, No. 382, October 1847 Various
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So we ride on, past phantom gates and falling homes, past the once flourishing farms of the Smiths, the Gandys, and the Lagores, and find all dilapidated and half ruined, even there where a solitary white woman, a relic of other days, sits alone in state among miles of Negroes and rides to town in her ancient coach each day.
VII. Of the Black Belt. William Edward Burghardt 1903
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Afternoon, twilight, dark; and still the tide rolled past him; _past him_ because like a stranded hull rotting for lack of use, he had put himself _outside_ the tide of human effort.
Vikings of the Pacific The Adventures of the Explorers who Came from the West, Eastward 1903
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Jesus, 'that it makes a man remember his own sinfulness with penitence, not with pain -- that it makes the memory of past transgressions full of solemn joy, because the memory of _past_ transgressions but brings to mind the depth and rushing fullness of that river of love which has swept them all away as far as the east is from the west.
Expositions of Holy Scripture St. Luke Alexander Maclaren 1868
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She would then be able to view the past dispassionately, to recognize that what _was past_ was gone forever, and to see the folly of a grief which wasted the present and the future.
His Sombre Rivals Edward Payson Roe 1863
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\'Who controls the past, \ 'ran the Party slogan, \'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past\'. "
OpEdNews - Quicklink: Welcome to Orwell's world by John Pilger 2009
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"God only knows what this summer is to see, and whether we are ever to meet again, or not," he then said, "but, come what may, the past, the _happy past_, is so much gained from the commonplace.
Satanstoe James Fenimore Cooper 1820
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For him, the past is the past, which is the theme of one of the album's best songs, "It's Never Coming Back," with its beautiful hammered keyboard opening verse.
Prolagus commented on the word past
A man with a past = a person who had an interesting life history
A woman with a past = a trollop
(See my list)
June 28, 2008
rolig commented on the word past
Since the past can be a snare that keeps one from moving on in life, it is curious that the Slovene word for "trap, snare" is, indeed, past.
February 2, 2009