| Noun | 1. | past - the time that has elapsed; "forget the past"time - the continuum of experience in which events pass from the future through the present to the past old - past times (especially in the phrase `in days of old') history - the aggregate of past events; "a critical time in the school's history" yesterday - the recent past; "yesterday's solutions are not good enough"; "we shared many yesterdays" | |
| 2. | past - a earlier period in someone's life (especially one that they have reason to keep secret); "reporters dug into the candidate's past"period, period of time, time period - an amount of time; "a time period of 30 years"; "hastened the period of time of his recovery"; "Picasso's blue period" life - the period between birth and the present time; "I have known him all his life" | |
| 3. | past - a verb tense that expresses actions or states in the pasttense - a grammatical category of verbs used to express distinctions of time | |
| Adj. | 1. | past - earlier than the present time; no longer current; "time past"; "his youth is past"; "this past Thursday"; "the past year"noncurrent - not current or belonging to the present time outgoing - going out or away or of the past; "an outgoing steamship"; "the outgoing president" old - of long duration; not new; "old tradition"; "old house"; "old wine"; "old country"; "old friendships"; "old money" future - yet to be or coming; "some future historian will evaluate him" present - temporal sense; intermediate between past and future; now existing or happening or in consideration; "the present leader"; "articles for present use"; "the present topic"; "the present system"; "present observations" | |
| 2. | past - of a person who has held and relinquished a position or office; "a retiring member of the board"outgoing - going out or away or of the past; "an outgoing steamship"; "the outgoing president" | |
| 3. | past - a verb tense or other construction referring to events or states that existed at some previous time; "past participle"grammar - studies of the formation of basic linguistic units | |
| Adv. | 1. | past - so as to pass a given point; "every hour a train goes past" | |