PAST

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does past mean? 

• PAST (noun)
  The noun PAST has 3 senses:

1. the time that has elapsed

2. a earlier period in someone's life (especially one that they have reason to keep secret)

3. a verb tense that expresses actions or states in the past

  Familiarity information: PAST used as a noun is uncommon.

• PAST (adjective)
  The adjective PAST has 2 senses:

1. earlier than the present time; no longer current

2. of a person who has held and relinquished a position or office

  Familiarity information: PAST used as an adjective is rare.

• PAST (adverb)
  The adverb PAST has 1 sense:

1. so as to pass a given point

  Familiarity information: PAST used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PAST (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The time that has elapsed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

past; past times; yesteryear

Context example:

forget the past

Hypernyms ("past" is a kind of...):

time (the continuum of experience in which events pass from the future through the present to the past)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "past"):

yore (time long past)

bygone; water under the bridge (past events to be put aside)

old (past times (especially in the phrase 'in days of old'))

history (the aggregate of past events)

time immemorial; time out of mind (the distant past beyond memory)

auld langsyne; good old days; langsyne; old times (past times remembered with nostalgia)

yesterday (the recent past)

Antonym:

future (the time yet to come)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A earlier period in someone's life (especially one that they have reason to keep secret)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Context example:

reporters dug into the candidate's past

Hypernyms ("past" is a kind of...):

period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)

Holonyms ("past" is a part of...):

life (the period between birth and the present time)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A verb tense that expresses actions or states in the past

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

past; past tense

Hypernyms ("past" is a kind of...):

tense (a grammatical category of verbs used to express distinctions of time)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "past"):

preterit; preterite (a term formerly used to refer to the simple past tense)

• PAST (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Earlier than the present time; no longer current

Context example:

the past year

Similar:

ult; ultimo (in or of the month preceding the present one)

then (at a specific prior time)

prehistoric; prehistorical (belonging to or existing in times before recorded history)

other (recently past)

olden (relating to time long past)

late; recent (of the immediate past or just previous to the present time)

last (immediately past)

historic; historical (belonging to the past; of what is important or famous in the past)

former; late; previous ((used especially of persons) of the immediate past)

erstwhile; former; old; one-time; onetime; quondam; sometime (belonging to some prior time)

early; former; other (belonging to the distant past)

chivalric; knightly; medieval (characteristic of the time of chivalry and knighthood in the Middle Ages)

bygone; bypast; departed; foregone; gone (well in the past; former)

ancient (belonging to times long past especially of the historical period before the fall of the Western Roman Empire)

ago; agone (gone by; or in the past)

Also:

old (of long duration; not new)

outgoing (leaving a place or a position)

noncurrent (not current or belonging to the present time)

Attribute:

timing (the time when something happens)

Antonym:

future (yet to be or coming)

present (temporal sense; intermediate between past and future; now existing or happening or in consideration)

Derivation:

pastness (the quality of being past)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Of a person who has held and relinquished a position or office

Synonyms:

past; preceding; retiring

Context example:

a retiring member of the board

Similar:

outgoing (leaving a place or a position)

• PAST (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

So as to pass a given point

Synonyms:

by; past

Context example:

every hour a train goes past

 Context examples 

I love the boy, but he tries my patience past bearing, and I know how it will end, if we go on so.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Regarding your reputation and work life, you may hear something that underscores how well your career is coming along, despite your fears that you had done everything wrong over the past two years.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Past research suggests that omega-3s may help protect against heart disease.

(Omega-3s linked with lower risk of fatal heart attacks, NIH)

I'm afraid the day for this sort of thing is rather past.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The flyby of 2004 BL86 will be the closest by any known space rock this large until asteroid 1999 AN10 flies past Earth in 2027.

(Asteroid to Fly By Earth on January 26, NASA)

“Very well indeed,” answered he; “one night is past, the two others will pass likewise.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Instantly she was whirling through the air, so swiftly that all she could see or feel was the wind whistling past her ears.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

That business was a thing of the past.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He was still in the clutch of the past.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It was quarter-past ten when she closed her book, fastened the shutters, and retired.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)