the period of time or a segment of it that has elapsed
forget the past
See full dictionary entry for past
Examples of 'the past' in a sentence
the past
The Lord Mayor, a man afraid of decisions, had talked for the past six months of letting her go.
Jon Cleary YESTERDAY'S SHADOW (2002)
Prison service dentistry must have come on apace in the past few years.
Anthony Masters CASCADES - THE DAY OF THE DEAD (2002)
He had thought a lot about necromancers over the past months.
Garth Nix LIRAEL: DAUGHTER OF THE CLAYR (2002)
All related terms of 'the past'
deep in the past
long ago
live in the past
If you accuse someone of living in the past , you mean that they think too much about the past or believe that things are the same as they were in the past.
the past anterior
a French tense : the pluperfect
the past decade
A decade is a period of ten years, especially one that begins with a year ending in 0, for example 1980 to 1989.
in the past tense
using a past tense verb
a thing of the past
If something is a thing of the past , it no longer exists or happens , or is being replaced by something new.
blast from the past
You can use a blast from the past as a light-hearted way of referring to something such as an old song or fashion that you hear or notice again, and which reminds you of an earlier time.
first-past-the-post
A first-past-the-post system for choosing members of parliament or other representatives is one in which the candidate who gets most votes wins.
past the hour/before the hour
If you want to state the time exactly , you can give a number of minutes followed by before the hour or past the hour .
first-past-the-post system
a voting system in which a candidate may be elected by a simple majority rather than an absolute majority