Adjacent Words

Past definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

P`AST , pp. Gone by; done; accomplished; ended.
1. Enacted; having received all the formalities necessary to constitute a law.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: earlier than the present time; no longer current; "time past"; "his youth is past"; "this past Thursday"; "the past year" [ant: future, present]
2: of a person who has held and relinquished a position or office; "a retiring member of the board" [syn: past, preceding, retiring] n
1: the time that has elapsed; "forget the past" [syn: past, past times, yesteryear] [ant: future, futurity, hereafter, time to come]
2: a earlier period in someone's life (especially one that they have reason to keep secret); "reporters dug into the candidate's past"
3: a verb tense that expresses actions or states in the past [syn: past, past tense] adv
1: so as to pass a given point; "every hour a train goes past" [syn: by, past]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Middle English, from past participle of passen to pass Date: 14th century 1. a. ago <12 years past> b. just gone or elapsed <for the past few months> 2. having existed or taken place in a period before the present ; bygone 3. of, relating to, or constituting a verb tense that is expressive of elapsed time and that in English is usually formed by internal vowel change (as in sang) or by the addition of a suffix (as in laughed) 4. having served as a specified officer in an organization <past president> II. preposition Date: 14th century 1. a. beyond the age for or of <past playing with dolls> b. after <half past two> 2. a. at the farther side of ; beyond b. in a course or direction going close to and then beyond <drove past the house> 3. obsolete more than 4. beyond the capacity, range, or sphere of <past belief> III. noun Date: 1520 1. a. time gone by b. something that happened or was done in the past <regret the past> 2. a. the past tense of a language b. a verb form in the past tense 3. a past life, history, or course of action; especially one that is kept secret • pastless adjective IV. adverb Date: 1546 so as to reach and go beyond a point near at hand <drove past>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj., n., prep., & adv. --adj. 1 gone by in time and no longer existing (in past years; the time is past). 2 recently completed or gone by (the past month; for some time past). 3 relating to a former time (past president). 4 Gram. expressing a past action or state. --n. 1 (prec. by the) a past time. b what has happened in past time (cannot undo the past). 2 a person's past life or career, esp. if discreditable (a man with a past). 3 a past tense or form. --prep. 1 beyond in time or place (is past two o'clock; ran past the house). 2 beyond the range, duration, or compass of (past belief; past endurance). --adv. so as to pass by (hurried past). Phrases and idioms: not put it past a person believe it possible of a person. past it colloq. incompetent or unusable through age. past master 1 a person who is especially adept or expert in an activity, subject, etc. 2 a person who has been a master in a guild, Freemason's lodge, etc. past perfect = PLUPERFECT. Etymology: past part. of PASS(1) v.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Past Past, adv. By; beyond; as, he ran past. The alarum of drums swept past. --Longfellow.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Past Past, a. [From Pass, v.] Of or pertaining to a former time or state; neither present nor future; gone by; elapsed; ended; spent; as, past troubles; past offences. ``Past ages.'' --Milton. Past master. See under Master.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Past Past, n. A former time or state; a state of things gone by. ``The past, at least, is secure.'' --D. Webster. The present is only intelligible in the light of the past, often a very remote past indeed. --Trench.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Past Past, prep. 1. Beyond, in position, or degree; further than; beyond the reach or influence of. ``Who being past feeling.'' --Eph. iv. 19. ``Galled past endurance.'' --Macaulay. Until we be past thy borders. --Num. xxi. 22. Love, when once past government, is consequently past shame. --L'Estrange.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(pasts) Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. Note: In addition to the uses shown below, 'past' is used in the phrasal verb 'run past'. 1. The past is the time before the present, and the things that have happened. In the past, about a third of the babies born to women with diabetes were lost... He should learn from the mistakes of the past. We have been here before... ? future, present N-SING: the N • If you accuse someone of living in the past, you mean that they think too much about the past or believe that things are the same as they were in the past. What was the point in living in the past, thinking about what had or had not happened? PHRASE: V inflects [disapproval] 2. Your past consists of all the things that you have done or that have happened to you. ...revelations about his past. ...Germany's recent past. N-COUNT: usu sing, usu with supp 3. Past events and things happened or existed before the present time. I knew from past experience that alternative therapies could help... The list of past champions includes many British internationals. = previous ADJ: ADJ n 4. You use past to talk about a period of time that has just finished. For example, if you talk about the past five years, you mean the period of five years that has just finished. Most shops have remained closed for the past three days. = last ? next ADJ: det ADJ n 5. If a situation is past, it has ended and no longer exists. (LITERARY) Many economists believe the worst of the economic downturn is past. ...images from years long past... = gone ADJ: v-link ADJ 6. In grammar, the past tenses of a verb are the ones used to talk about things that happened at some time before the present. The simple past tense uses the past form of a verb, which for regular verbs ends in '-ed', as in 'They walked back to the car'. ADJ: ADJ n see also past perfect 7. You use past when you are stating a time which is thirty minutes or less after a particular hour. For example, if it is twenty past six, it is twenty minutes after six o'clock. It's ten past eleven... I arrived at half past ten. ? to PREP: num PREP num • Past is also an adverb. I have my lunch at half past. ? to ADV: num ADV 8. If it is past a particular time, it is later than that time. It was past midnight... It's past your bedtime. = gone, after PREP 9. If you go past someone or something, you go near them and keep moving, so that they are then behind you. I dashed past him and out of the door... A steady procession of people filed past the coffin... = by PREP • Past is also an adverb. An ambulance drove past. = by ADV 10. If you look or point past a person or thing, you look or point at something behind them. She stared past Christine at the bed. PREP: v PREP n 11. If something is past a place, it is on the other side of it. Go north on I-15 to the exit just past Barstow... ? before PREP: v-link PREP n 12. If someone or something is past a particular point or stage, they are no longer at that point or stage. He was well past retirement age... PREP: usu v-link PREP n 13. If you are past doing something, you are no longer able to do it. For example, if you are past caring, you do not care about something any more because so many bad things have happened to you. She was past caring about anything by then and just wanted the pain to end... Often by the time they do accept the truth they are past being able to put words to feelings. = beyond PREP: v-link PREP -ing • If you say that someone or something is past it, they are no longer able to do what they used to do. We could do with a new car. The one we've got is a bit past it. PHRASE: v-link PHR [disapproval] 14. If you say that you would not put it past someone to do something bad, you mean that you would not be surprised if they did it because you think their character is bad. You know what she's like. I wouldn't put it past her to call the police and say I stole them. PHRASE: oft PHR to-inf

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. a. 1. Spent, gone, ended, accomplished. 2. Gone by. II. n. Past time, bygone time. III. prep. 1. Beyond, out of the reach of. 2. After (in time). 3. Beyond (in position), farther than. 4. Above, more than, exceeding. IV. ad. By.

Moby Thesaurus

above, above and beyond, across, after, ago, ancient, antecedent, anterior, antiquated, antique, antiquity, aorist, aoristic, background, before, behind, beyond, biography, blown over, by, bygone, bygone days, bypast, career, chronology, close by, continuity, dated, days beyond recall, days gone by, days of old, days of yore, dead, dead and buried, dead and gone, deceased, defunct, departed, disused, done, duration, durative, duree, early, elapsed, erstwhile, existence, expired, extinct, finished, fore, foregoing, foretime, forgotten, former, former times, future, future perfect, gone, gone glimmering, gone out, gone-by, has-been, heretofore, historical present, history, immemorial, imperfect, in excess of, irrecoverable, lang syne, lapsed, last, lastingness, late, later than, life, lifetime, nearby, no more, obsolete, old, old times, olden, olden times, on, once, onetime, out, out of style, out of use, outside, outworn, over, over and above, passe, passed, passed away, past perfect, perfect, perfective, period, pluperfect, point tense, precedent, prehistoric, present, present perfect, preterit, preteritive, previous, primeval, primitive, prior, progressive tense, psychological time, quondam, recent, run out, since, sometime, space, space-time, subsequent to, tense, term, the future, the past, the present, then, tide, time, timebinding, too deep for, vanished, while, whilom, without, wound up, yesterday, yesteryear, yore