[syn: by, past]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Past \Past\, prep.
1. Beyond, in position, or degree; further than; beyond the
reach or influence of. "Who being past feeling." --Eph.
iv. 19. "Galled past endurance." --Macaulay.
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Until we be past thy borders. --Num. xxi.
22.
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Love, when once past government, is consequently
past shame. --L'Estrange.
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2. Beyond, in time; after; as, past the hour.
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Is it not past two o'clock? --Shak.
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3. Above; exceeding; more than. [R.]
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Not past three quarters of a mile. --Shak.
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Bows not past three quarters of a yard long.
--Spenser.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Past \Past\, a. [From Pass, v.]
Of or pertaining to a former time or state; neither present
nor future; gone by; elapsed; ended; spent; as, past
troubles; past offences. "Past ages." --Milton.
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Past master. See under Master.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Past \Past\, n.
A former time or state; a state of things gone by. "The past,
at least, is secure." --D. Webster.
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The present is only intelligible in the light of the
past, often a very remote past indeed. --Trench.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Past \Past\ (p[.a]st), adv.
By; beyond; as, he ran past.
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The alarum of drums swept past. --Longfellow.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
past
adv 1: so as to pass a given point; "every hour a train goes
past" [syn: by, past]
adj 1: earlier than the present time; no longer current; "time
past"; "his youth is past"; "this past Thursday"; "the
past year" [ant: future, present(a)]
2: of a person who has held and relinquished a position or
office; "a retiring member of the board" [syn: past(a),
preceding(a), retiring(a)]
n 1: the time that has elapsed; "forget the past" [syn: past,
past times, yesteryear] [ant: future, futurity,
hereafter, time to come]
2: a earlier period in someone's life (especially one that they
have reason to keep secret); "reporters dug into the
candidate's past"
3: a verb tense that expresses actions or states in the past
[syn: past, past tense]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
142 Moby Thesaurus words for "past":
above, above and beyond, across, after, ago, ancient, antecedent,
anterior, antiquated, antique, antiquity, aorist, aoristic,
background, before, behind, beyond, biography, blown over, by,
bygone, bygone days, bypast, career, chronology, close by,
continuity, dated, days beyond recall, days gone by, days of old,
days of yore, dead, dead and buried, dead and gone, deceased,
defunct, departed, disused, done, duration, durative, duree, early,
elapsed, erstwhile, existence, expired, extinct, finished, fore,
foregoing, foretime, forgotten, former, former times, future,
future perfect, gone, gone glimmering, gone out, gone-by, has-been,
heretofore, historical present, history, immemorial, imperfect,
in excess of, irrecoverable, lang syne, lapsed, last, lastingness,
late, later than, life, lifetime, nearby, no more, obsolete, old,
old times, olden, olden times, on, once, onetime, out,
out of style, out of use, outside, outworn, over, over and above,
passe, passed, passed away, past perfect, perfect, perfective,
period, pluperfect, point tense, precedent, prehistoric, present,
present perfect, preterit, preteritive, previous, primeval,
primitive, prior, progressive tense, psychological time, quondam,
recent, run out, since, sometime, space, space-time, subsequent to,
tense, term, the future, the past, the present, then, tide, time,
timebinding, too deep for, vanished, while, whilom, without,
wound up, yesterday, yesteryear, yore
The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906):
PAST, n. That part of Eternity with some small fraction of which we
have a slight and regrettable acquaintance. A moving line called the
Present parts it from an imaginary period known as the Future. These
two grand divisions of Eternity, of which the one is continually
effacing the other, are entirely unlike. The one is dark with sorrow
and disappointment, the other bright with prosperity and joy. The
Past is the region of sobs, the Future is the realm of song. In the
one crouches Memory, clad in sackcloth and ashes, mumbling penitential
prayer; in the sunshine of the other Hope flies with a free wing,
beckoning to temples of success and bowers of ease. Yet the Past is
the Future of yesterday, the Future is the Past of to-morrow. They
are one -- the knowledge and the dream.