once upon a time
B1 used at the beginning of children's stories to mean "a long time ago":
Once upon a time there was an ugly duckling.
used when referring to something that happened in the past, especially when showing that you feel sorry that it no longer happens:
Once upon a time people knew the difference between right and wrong, but nowadays nobody seems to care.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
In the past
- ago
- any more idiom
- anymore
- back in the day idiom
- before
- clock
- dot
- late
- memory
- more
- no longer idiom
- of late idiom
- of old idiom
- old
- past
- the status quo ante
- the week/month/year before last idiom
- the year dot idiom
- use
- used
See more results »