- the past[singular] the time that has gone by; things that happened in an earlier time
- in the past I used to go there often in the past.
- He had hurt her so many times in the past.
- the recent/distant past
- She looked back on the past without regret.
- of the past Writing letters seems to be a thing of the past.
- She had learned from her mistakes of the past.
- I feel that the past and the present and the future are all tied together in some way.
Homophones passed | pastpassed past/pɑːst//pæst/- passed verb (past tense, past participle of pass)
- You've passed all your exams—well done!
- past adjective
- It's arguably the best novel of the past 20 years.
- past noun
- Let's put the past behind us and move on.
- past preposition
- You shouldn't be up—it's past your bedtime!
Extra ExamplesTopics Historya1- Archaeology provides us with tools for reconstructing the past.
- Don't worry about it—it's all in the past now.
- I admit that I have made mistakes in the past.
- In an effort to make a complete break with the past, she sold everything and went abroad.
- Many modern festivals can be traced back to an ancient past.
- Memories from the past came flooding back to him.
- The counselling helped Dan to put the past behind him.
- The old market is a living link with the past, unchanged for hundreds of years.
- The uncovering of the buried town gives us a unique glimpse of the past.
- Those memories belong to the past and I don't want to think about them.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- immediate
- recent
- ancient
- …
- cling to
- live in
- relive
- …
- from the past
- in the past
- into the past
- …
- be all in the past
- a break with the past
- a glimpse of the past
- …
Definitions on the go
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- [countable] a person’s past life or career; the history of a place, country, group, etc.
- We don't know anything about his past.
- Little remains from the city's glorious past.
- They say she has a ‘past’ (= bad things in her past life that she wishes to keep secret).
- He has a chequered past (= that contains both good and bad periods).
Extra Examples- He tried in vain to recapture his past.
- He was forced to confront his forgotten past.
- ghosts from his past
- She didn't tell them about her boyfriend's criminal past.
- The country still suffers as a result of its colonial past.
- Political parties cannot escape from their pasts any more than individuals can.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- historic
- historical
- forgotten
- …
- reflect on
- recapture
- erase
- …
- from your past
- in your past
- the past(also past tense)[singular] (grammar) the form of a verb used to describe actions in the past
- The past of ‘shine’ is ‘shone’.
Word OriginMiddle English: variant of passed, past participle of pass.
Idioms
See past in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee past in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englisha blast from the past
- (informal) a person or thing from your past that you see, hear, meet, etc. again in the present
the (dim and) distant past
- a long time ago
- stories from the dim and distant past
- In the distant past this land was covered in forests.
live in the past
- to behave as though society, etc. has not changed, when in fact it has
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past