1. past(n = noun.time) past times, yesteryear - the time that has elapsed; "forget the past"
is a kind of time
has particulars: yore, bygone, water under the bridge, old, history, time immemorial, time out of mind, auld langsyne, good old days, langsyne, old times, yesterday
Antonym: future
2. past(n = noun.time) - a earlier period in someone's life (especially one that they have reason to keep secret); "reporters dug into the candidate's past"
is a kind of period, period of time, time period
is a part of life
3. past(n = noun.communication) past tense - a verb tense that expresses actions or states in the past;
is a kind of tense
has particulars: preterit, preterite
1. past(a = adj.all) - earlier than the present time; no longer current; "time past"; "his youth is past"; "this past Thursday"; "the past year"
Antonyms: future, present
Derived form noun pastness1
2. past(s = adj.all) preceding, retiring - of a person who has held and relinquished a position or office; "a retiring member of the board"
past(r = adv.all) by - so as to pass a given point; "every hour a train goes past"
Of or pertaining to a former time or state; neither present nor future; gone by; elapsed; ended; spent; as, past troubles; past offences. Milton. [1913 Webster]
A former time or state; a state of things gone by. D. Webster. [1913 Webster]
"The present is only intelligible in the light of the past, often a very remote past indeed." [1913 Webster]
1. Beyond, in position, or degree; further than; beyond the reach or influence of. [1913 Webster]
"Until we be past thy borders." [1913 Webster]
"Love, when once past government, is consequently past shame." [1913 Webster]
2. Beyond, in time; after; as, past the hour. [1913 Webster]
"Is it not past two o'clock?" [1913 Webster]
3. Above; exceeding; more than. [1913 Webster]
"Not past three quarters of a mile." [1913 Webster]
"Bows not past three quarters of a yard long." [1913 Webster]
By; beyond; as, he ran past. [1913 Webster]
"The alarum of drums swept past." [1913 Webster]
past, 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).
Idiom:
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.
N the past, past time, days of yore, times of yore, days of old, times of old, days past, times past, days gone by, times gone by, bygone days, old times, ancient times, former times, fore time, the good old days, the olden time, good old time, auld lang syne, eld, antiquity, antiqueness, status quo, time immemorial, distance of time, remote age, remote time, remote past, rust of antiquity, paleontology, paleography, paleology, paleozoology, palaetiology, archaeology, paleogeography, paleoecology, paleobotany, paleoclimatoogy, archaism, antiquarianism, medievalism, Pre-Raphaelitism, paleography, retrospect, retrospection, looking back, memory, laudator temporis acti, medievalist, Pre-Raphaelite, antiquary, antiquarian, archmologist, Oldbuck, Dryasdust, ancestry, past, gone, gone by, over, passed away, bygone, foregone, elapsed, lapsed, preterlapsed, expired, no more, run out, blown over, has-been, that has been, extinct, antediluvian, antebellum, never to return, gone with the wind, exploded, forgotten, irrecoverable, obsolete, former, pristine, quondam, ci-devant, late, ancestral, foregoing, last, latter, recent, over night, preterperfect, preterpluperfect, looking back, retrospective, retroactive, archaeological, paleo-, archaeo-, formerly, of old, of yore, erst, whilom, erewhile, time was, ago, over, in the olden time, anciently, long ago, long since, a long while, a long time ago, years ago, yesteryear, ages ago, some time ago, some time since, some time back, yesterday, the day before yesterday, last year, ultimo, lately, retrospectively, ere now, before now, till now, hitherto, heretofore, no longer, once, once upon a time, from time immemorial, from prehistoric times, in the memory of man, time out of mind, already, yet, up to this time, ex post facto, time was, the time has been, the time hath been, you can't go home again, fuimus Troes, fruit Ilium, hoc erat in more majorum, O call back yesterday, bid time return, tempi passati, the eternal landscape of the past, ultimus Romanorum, what's past is prologue, whose yesterdays look backward with a smile, Time with reference to a particular period.
dead hand of the past, go past, past due, past master, past participle, past perfect, past perfect tense, past progressive, past progressive tense, past tense, past times