| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| past |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  p st |
| ADJECTIVE: | 1. No longer current; gone by; over: His youth is past. 2. Having existed or occurred in an earlier time; bygone: past events; in years past. 3a. Earlier than the present time; ago: 40 years past. b. Just gone by or elapsed: in the past few days. 4. Having served formerly in a given capacity, especially an official one: a past president; a past inmate of a cell. 5. Grammar Of, relating to, or being a verb tense or form used to express an action or condition prior to the time it is expressed. | | NOUN: | 1. The time before the present. 2a. Previous background, career, experiences, and activities: an elderly person with a distinguished past. b. A former period of someone's life kept secret or thought to be shameful: a family with a checkered past. 3. Grammar a. The past tense. b. A verb form in the past tense. | | ADVERB: | So as to pass by or go beyond: He waved as he walked past. | | PREPOSITION: | 1. Beyond in time; later than or after: past midnight; a quarter past two. 2. Beyond in position; farther than: The house is a mile past the first stoplight. They walked past the memorial in silence. 3a. Beyond the power, scope, extent, or influence of: The problem is past the point of resolution. b. Beyond in development or appropriateness: The child is past drinking from a bottle. You're past sucking your thumb, so don't do it. 4. Beyond the number or amount of: The child couldn't count past 20. See Usage Note at pass. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, from past participle of passen, to pass. See pass.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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