past meaning
EN[pɑːst] [pæst] [-æst] [-ɑːst]US
WPast
- The past is a term used to indicate the totality of events which occurred before a given point in time. The past is contrasted with and defined by the present and the future.
- The past is the object of such fields as history, archaeology, archaeoastronomy, chronology, geology, historical geology, historical linguistics, law, ontology, paleontology, paleobotany, paleoethnobotany, palaeogeography, paleoclimatology,
- NounPLpasts
- The period of time that has already happened, in contrast to the present and the future.
- a book about a time machine that can transport people back into the past
- (grammar) The past tense.
- The period of time that has already happened, in contrast to the present and the future.
- AdjectiveCOMmore pastSUPmost past
- Having already happened; in the past; finished.
- The highway to the East Coast which ran through the borough of Ebbfield had always been a main road and even now, despite the vast garages, the pylons and the gaily painted factory glasshouses which had sprung up beside it, there still remained an occasional trace of past cultures.
- (postmodifier) Following expressions of time to indicate how long ago something happened; ago.
- Of a period of time: having just gone by; previous.
- Sarkozy's total will be seen as a personal failure. It is the first time an outgoing president has failed to win a first-round vote in the past 50 years and makes it harder for Sarkozy to regain momentum.
- (grammar) Of a tense, expressing action that has already happened or a previously-existing state.
- past tense
- Having already happened; in the past; finished.
- AdverbCOMmore pastSUPmost past
- Preposition
- More Examples
- Used in the Middle of Sentence
- Let me run that idea past the board before we spend too much time on it.
- On past experience she disfavours him for the more sensitive work.
- Still they keep coming, perhaps spurred on by the celebrity status that chefdom has achieved in the past decade.
- Used in the Ending of Sentence
- But McCartney, 50, is hardly ready to give up the ghost of his creative past.
- His image reflected from the shop window as he walked past.
- The shop window reflected his image as he walked past.
- Used in the Middle of Sentence
Definition of past in English Dictionary
- Part-of-Speech Hierarchy
- Adjectives
- Adverbs
- Nouns
- Countable nouns
- Countable nouns
- Prepositions
- Adjectives
Source: Wiktionary