▪ I. past, ppl. a. and n.
(pɑːst, -æ-)
Forms: α. 3–9 passed, (4 y-, 5 -id, -yd, i-, 5 Sc. passit, 7 pass'd); β. 3– past, (4–6 paste).
[Pa. pple. of pass v.: cf. F. passé, L. præteritus.]
A. ppl. a. I. 1. Predicatively after be: Gone by in time; elapsed; done with; over. (L. præteritus.)
This was really the perfect tense of resultant condition, (cf. pass v. 13), formed, as in other vbs. of motion, with be instead of have: cf. he is come, he is gone, the sun was risen, Babylon is fallen. Also past and gone.
| 13..–1388 [see pass v. 13]. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xviii. 133 Sith þis barn was bore ben xxxti wynter passed. 1387 Trevisa Higden VIII. 59 When þe ȝere were i-passed he sent to Rome. c 1400 Destr. Troy 10133 When paste was the pes, parties were gedirt. c 1430 Syr Tryam. 799 The nyȝt was paste, the day was come. 1526 Tindale Rom. iii. 25 He forgeveth the synnes thatt are passed [mispr. passhed]. 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 380 My day's delight is past, my horse is gone. 1611 Bible 1 Sam. xv. 32 Agag said, Surely the bitternesse of death is past. 1784 Cowper Task i. 639 The dream is past; and thou hast found again Thy..homestall thatched with leaves. 1842 Tennyson Vision of Sin iv. 69 What! the flower of life is past. |
II. attrib. (orig. after its n.)
2. That is gone, passed away, bygone; elapsed (of time); belonging to or having existed or occurred in former days, or before the time current.
| a 1340 Ayenb. 59 On is preterit, þet is to zigge; of þinge ypased. 1387–8 T. Usk Test. Love i. Prol. (Skeat) l. 77 Al the vaineglory that the passed Emperours, Princes, or Kinges hadden. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 5 Long tyme in olde daies passed. 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 604/43 Præteritus...ypassyd. c 1400 tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. 63 Repent þe noght of þinges passyd. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 761 Things passed cannot be called agayne. 1678 Walton Life Sanderson 53 This Relation of my pass'd thoughts. 1781 Cowper Truth 256 While danger passed is turned to present joy. a 1821 Keats In a drear-nighted December iii, But were there ever any Writhed not at passed joy? |
| β 13.. Cursor M. 12125 Noght allan þe time past [MS. F. paste] Bot elles hu lang þi life sal last. a 1450 Cov. Myst. viii. (Shaks. Soc.) 70 Fro perellys past, present, and future. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. i. viii. 8 b, [The city] in times paste was by the Emperours of Rome honoured. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. iii. ii. 34 My past life Hath been as continent, as chaste, as true, As I am now vnhappy. 1623 Webster Duchess Malfi iii. ii, Past sorrows, let us moderately lament them. 1781 Cowper Truth 491 Past indiscretion is a venial crime. 1875 Jowett Plato III. 266 A narration of events, either past, present, or to come. |
3. Gone by immediately before the present time; just passed. Often strengthened by last, q.v. (B. 2 b). a. Following words expressing a space of time, and indicating a date removed by this space: Passed away, gone by, bygone, agone, ago.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 6716 If his lauerd kneu [þe ox] kene o horn Thre dais passed [Gött. pascid] þar be-forn. [1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. Prol. 189, I herde my sire seyn is seuene ȝere ypassed, Þere [etc.].] 1393 Ibid. C. xvii. 368 As ich tolde þe with tonge a lytel tyme passed. 1444 Rolls of Parlt. V. 117/2 As thay used to bye hem a xx or xxx yere past. 1572 J. Jones Bathes of Bath. i. 2 More then two thousande yeares passed. 1653 Sclater Fun. Serm. 25 Sept. Ep. Ded., Above twenty years last past..you erected, and ever since continued, at your own proper cost, an Arabick Lecture. 1670 Walton Lives iii. 156 About forty years past. 1747 Mem. Nutrebian Crt. I. 170 Some time past. 1790 Bystander 153 Some numbers past it was announced in this publication, that [etc.]. 1830 Pusey Hist. Enq. ii. 135 According to a plan prescribed a hundred or more years past. |
b. with for: = during the space just gone by.
| 1732 Berkeley Alciphr. i. §1 For several months past, I have enjoyed such liberty. 1756 T. Amory Buncle (1770) II. 164 He has been for a year and a half last past in Italy. 1803 Med. Jrnl. X. 212 Drier..than it has been for some years past. 1894 G. Moore Esther Waters 179 Esther admitted that she had for some time past neglected her religion. |
c. Following a date of month or week: = preceding this, last. Cf. last B. 2 b.
| 1411 Rolls of Parlt. III. 650/1 The Saterday neghst after the fest of Seint Michael last passed. c 1475 Partenay 6182 The tewisday passed Aforne penticost, The yere A thousand four hundred & seuyn wend. 1583 T. Stocker Civ. Warres Lowe C. i. 36 The fifth of Aprill the yeere last past. 1626 C. Potter tr. Sarpi's Hist. Quarrels 37 In the Moneth of May last past. |
d. ellipt. Of the past month, last month, ultimo.
| 1711 Lond. Gaz. No. 4893/2 Our Letters of the Thirty-first past..bring an Account. 1751 Warburton in Lett. w. Hurd (1809) 93, I have yours of the 28th past to acknowledge. 1766 Chesterfield Lett. (1774) IV. 246, I received yesterday your letter of the 30{supt}{suph} past. |
e. generally. Of time or order: That has just passed, bygone; foregoing, preceding. (Usually preceding its n.)
| c 1450 Mirour Saluacioun 4283 The passid Chapitle shewed vs the last examynacionne. 1588 Parke tr. Mendoza's Hist. China 176 Of whom wee made mention in the Chapter past. 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl., Disc. Occ. Med. iv. v, If you should imagine, that in the passed discourse I have [etc.]. 1803 Edwin I. xv. 241 On the past day Adelfrid..had departed into Deïri. 1902 Westm. Gaz. 24 Feb. 12/1 Famous in the religious history of the past century. |
4. Of or relating to bygone time; in Grammar, Expressing past action or state, preterite: as in past tense (also attrib. and in extended uses), past participle (also past-participial adj.).
past imperfect: see imperfect A. 5 and B. past perfect = pluperfect. past tenses, applied to the aorist, imperfect, perfect or preterite, and pluperfect tenses.
| 1530 Palsgr. Introd. 32 The thre generall distinctions of tyme, present, parfytly past, and to come. c 1620 A. Hume Brit. Tongue (1870) 31 Tyme is an affection of the verb noating the differences of tyme, and is either present, past, or to cumm... Tyme passing befoer, quhilk we cal imperfectlie past..I was writing, or did wryte. 1772 Priestley Inst. Relig. (1782) II. 113 There is nothing past or future in his ideas. 1798 H. Tooke Diversions of Purley (ed. 2) I. viii. 263 The adjective Less and the comparative Less are the imperative..; and the superlative Least is the past participle. 1813 Examiner 12 Apr. 230/2 Mine, alas!..has long ago been all of it, in the past tense. 1823 Byron Juan xiii. xl, The past tense, The dreary ‘Fuimus’ of all things human. 1839 Penny Cycl. XIII. 314/1 The past-imperfect and aorist tenses of the Greek verb. 1889 Academy 23 Nov. 343 The form ‘scripsi’, the traditional ‘past-perfect’, was now called ‘present perfect’; ‘scripseram’ was called past-perfect. 1892 W. W. Skeat Primer Eng. Etym. ix. 104 The suffix so common in Lat. past participles, as in amā-tus.., loved. The corresponding past participial suffix in E. is -d, as in dea-d.., orig. a past participle. 1937 Jrnl. Eng. & Gmc. Philol. XXXVI. 474 The strong vowel is divided into classes..according to the vowel of the past and ignoring the past participle vowel. 1961 R. B. Long Sentence & its Parts vii. 167 Where main predicators are past-tense forms, common-mode predicators in subordinate clauses..are likely to be past-tense too if a choice between past forms and presents is possible. Ibid. xviii. 406 Latin past-participial stems are commonly marked..by the use of either the letter t or the letter s. 1961 B. Malamud New Life (1962) 290, I did—ah—see one but that's all past tense. 1976 H. MacInnes Agent in Place xxviii. 286 No need to think anything. It's all past tense now. 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 27 Mar. 19/3 Vidal's spicy past-tense peep show adds seasoning to this year's version. 1976 G. L. Brook Lang. Shakespeare iii. 110 The present participle is normally active and the past participle is normally passive. 1977 Word 1972 XXVIII. 98, 89·5 percent of all past-tense environments preserve lenition. |
5. In the usage of various societies: Having served one's term of office. Cf. past-master.
B. n. [elliptical uses of A.]
1. a. the past: The time that has gone by; all time before the present; bygone times or days collectively, past time. Phr. a thing of the past.
| 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. iii. 30 She speakes no more Of past: true is, that true love hath no powre To looken backe. c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. cxxiii, Not wondering at the present and the past. 1732 Pope Ess. Man ii. 52 Then see how little the remaining sum, Which serv'd the past, and must the times to come. 1832 Tennyson Love thou thy Land 2 Love thou thy land, with love far-brought From out the storied Past, and used Within the Present. 1871 Smiles Charac. vii. (1876) 201 Men of a comparatively remote past. |
| Phr. 1863 Athenæum 15 Aug. 200/3 Even in America the woman-doctor is an eccentricity, and most probably will in a few years be a thing of the past. 1903 G. B. Shaw Man & Superman iii. 92 Do not ask me how old I was—as if I were a thing of the past. I am 77. 1952 E. O'Neill Moon for Misbegotten i. 43 Who told you I fall for the dainty dolls? That's all a thing of the past. 1961 New Eng. Bible Luke xvi. 9 When money is a thing of the past. 1977 C. Allen Raj i. 21/2 By the 1880s the discomfort of travelling by palkee (palanquin)..was already becoming a thing of the past. |
b. That which was done or happened in the past.
| 1665 G. Thomson (title) Loimotomia; or the Past Anatomized. 1811 W. R. Spencer Poems 7 Oh, Mother! past is past! 'tis o'er. 1892 Westcott Gospel of Life 18 No repentance on earth can undo the past. |
2. A past life, career, or history; a stage that one has passed through; esp. in pregnant sense, a past life over which a veil is drawn.
| 1836 J. H. Newman Par. Serm. (1837) III. xxii. 366 Is it never maintained, that a Christian Minister is off his past? 1855 Trench Eng. Past & Pr. i. (1870) 6 Why we should occupy ourselves with the past of our language. 1876 Ouida Winter City v. 86 In real truth a woman is easier to manage who has had a past. 1890 R. Kipling in Contemp. Rev. July 28 The Lords of Life and Death would never allow Charlie Mears to speak with full knowledge of his pasts. |
3. Gram. (ellipt.) = past tense: see A. 4.
| 1783 Blair Rhet. (1812) I. ix. 187 An aörist, or indefinite past. 1845 Stoddart in Encycl. Metrop. (1847) I. 57/1 The present imperfect implies something of the past, and some⁓thing of the future. |
C. attrib. and Comb. (from A), as past-future a. (Gram.), of a tense: expressing an action or a state viewed as future in relation to a given past time; past-president, one who has been a president; past-profit a., concerning past profits; past-time a., belonging to a bygone time, ancient, antique, old-fashioned. Also from B, as past-coloured, past-dissecting, past-done adjs.
| 1939 S. Spender Still Centre 24 In the past-coloured pigment of the mind's eye They feed and fly and dwell. |
| 1939 L. MacNeice Autumn Jrnl. 18 The final cure is not in his past-dissecting fingers. |
| 1762 Sterne Tr. Shandy VI. xxi. 89 Chatting..upon past-done deeds. |
| 1925 Grattan & Gurrey Our living Lang. 230 The Past-Future Tense (a)..(a) He said he should (would) write, etc. Ibid., The Past-Future-Continuous Tense (b)..(b) He said he should (would) be writing, etc. Ibid., The Past-Future-Perfect Tense (c)..(c) He said he should (would) have written, etc. Ibid., The Past-Future-Perfect-Continuous Tense (d)..(d) He said he should (would) have been writing, etc. 1961 R. B. Long Sentence & its Parts v. 127 Progressive-aspect forms..sometimes emphasize..in past-perfect and past-future tenses closeness to a past time that is central in the attention at the moment. |
| 1903 Nature 12 Feb. 348/2 James Glaisher..was also a past-president of the Royal Meteorological Society. 1961 Newark (New Jersey) Even. News 22 Mar. 25 He regretted Hughes had made a personal attack on a past president. |
| 1899 Westm. Gaz. 15 Mar. 6/1 There will be no valuation or past profit statement. |
| 1889 J. J. Hissey Tour in Phaeton 89 These past-time inns..how they delight the eye of the nineteenth century traveller. |
▪ II. past, prep. and adv.
(pɑːst, pæst)
Also 4 ipassed, 4–6 passed, passit.
[The prepositional use appears to have arisen out of the perfect tenses of pass v., formed with be instead of have in the statement of resultant condition (see prec.); be was illogically used even when the vb. was transitive, as in the following examples:
c 1305 St. Cristoph. 52 in E.E.P. (1862) 61 Þo he þe croice ipassed was, he tournde aȝe to þe clene. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VII. 487 Whanne þey were unneþes i-passed A reden [v.r. reedy] marys. c 1400 St. Alexius (Laud 622) 283 Þe Cee of grece he passed is. c 1430 Syr Tryam. 61 Now ys the kyng passyd the see. c 1460 Towneley Myst. x. 168, I am old..passed I am all preuay play. 1600 Abp. Abbot Exp. Jonah 273 Ionas was passed the pikes, and now entering upon a victory, when [etc.].
In these we can substitute for i-passed, passed, or past, the prep. beyond (as expressing the result of passing); whence it was natural to treat past as = ‘beyond’ in other contexts.]
A. prep.
1. a. Beyond in time (as the result of passing); after; beyond the age for or time of.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 10970 (Cott.) Of barns [Gött. child] er we passed þe pass [Trin. [We] are past tyme childe to welde]. c 1386 Chaucer Friar's T. 176 The day is short and it is passed pryme. c 1391 ― Astrol. ii. §3 It was passed 8 of the clokke the space of 2 degrees. 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) VI. 343 Noon of theym lyvede passede oon yere. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xxvii. (Percy Soc.) 119, I thought me past al chyldly ygnoraunce. 1526 Tindale Heb. xi. 11 Sara..was delivered of a childe when she was past age. 1573–80 Baret Alv. P 162 Old houndes past hunting. Ibid. 177 A disease Past the worst. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 119 When it was halfe an houre past the sixt houre. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. x. iv. §15 Children not yet come to, and old men past, helping of themselves. 1709 Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) II. 309 After he was past the Age of one hundred Years. 1760–72 H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) III. 68 This horse is quite passed mark of mouth. 1885 Truth 28 May 833/2 Dancing was kept up till past two. Mod. The time is half past three. |
b. In stating age past sometimes follows. Cf. past ppl. a. 3 c.
| 1676 Lond. Gaz. No. 1153/4 A light gray Gelding..five years old past. 1720 Ibid. No. 5898/9 Lost.., a black Mare,..aged three Years past. |
c. ellipt. Beyond the age of (so many years).
| 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 33 The Emperour beyng now past one and twenty yeres of Age. 1718 Entertainer No. 20. 132 Augustus..injoin'd Marriage to all past 25 Years of Age. 1767 Warburton in Lett. w. Hurd (1809) 406 His being able, at past eighty, to perform this expedition on foot. 1838 Lytton Alice i. i, The elder lady, the guest of her companion, was past seventy. 1967 M. Forster Trav. Maudie Tipstaff i. v. 98 In Maudie's opinion, no woman could get past forty and still have those needs. |
† d. Of time measured backwards: Going back beyond, of older date than. Cf. beyond prep. 5.
| 1575 Reg. Privy Council Scot. Ser. i. II. 472 [This] hes bene in use..within the said Burgh past memor of man. |
2. a. Beyond in place (as the result of passing); further on than; at or on the farther side of.
past sight, (gone) out of or beyond the reach of sight.
| c 1305–1430 [see above in Etymology]. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. 154 When he was past the ryver, he thanked God. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, v. iii. 345 My Lord, the Enemy is past the Marsh. 1611 Bible Num. xxi. 22 Until we be [R.V. have] past thy borders. 1615 Chapman Odyss. v. 459 She ..again Turn'd to a cormorant, dived, past sight, the main. Mod. He lives in the first house past the corner. [1870 W. Morris Earthly Par. Prol. (1890) 6/2 When we are passed the French and English strait.] |
b. Of motion: By (in passing). to go past, to pass, go by; so to flow, ride, run, hurry, etc. past (a person or place). spec. to get past, to pass, to overtake.
| 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 137 He..behelde hir after that she was gon past hym. 1808 Scott Marm. iii. xii, He drew his mantle past his face. 1818 Shelley Rev. Islam iii. xxxiv, As past the pebbly beach the boat did flee. 1836 Marryat Japhet vii, Crowds of people were running past our shop. 1857 T. Hughes Tom Brown's School Days i. v. 109 They're the bounds. As soon as the ball gets past them, it's in touch, and out of play. 1863 Mrs. Oliphant Salem Ch. xv. 256 He pushed in past the pails. 1906 Gallaher & Stead Compl. Rugby Footballer xix. 262 We don't think Scoular was to blame for allowing Smith to get past him and score. 1971 Croquet Gaz. July 14/2 The..Singles..were won by Lady Ursula Abbey who just got past Mrs. Temple in a close and protracted final. 1977 Daily Express 29 Mar. 32/4 England put nine goals past Luxemburg 16 years ago in the away leg of a World Cup qualifier. |
3. a. Beyond the reach, range, or compass of; not within the scope or reach of; incapable of: chiefly with nouns of action or mental state. Sometimes with some notion of time: = No longer capable of, or within the scope or reach of.
In more or less permanent combinations with various ns., many of which survive in literature, chiefly as Shaksperian or Biblical echoes, as past belief, past compare, past comprehension, past (all) cure (cf. cure n. 6 b), past doubt, past endurance, past finding out, past grace, past hope, past mending, past question, past recovery, past redress, past remedy, past saving, past shame, etc. Others have become colloquial, as past praying for also loosely, beyond hope (of cure, recovery, etc.), etc. (See beyond prep. 5, 6.)
| 1509 Barclay Shyp of Folys (1874) II. 55 Some ar so past shame in theyr langage So fowle and lothly, that [etc.]. 1526 Tindale Eph. iv. 19 Beynge past repentaunce [1611 past feeling]. 1534 ― Rom. xi. 33 How vnserchable are his iudgementes and his wayes past findyng out. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 5 Lest in proces of tyme..it be paste remedy. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iv. i. 211, I had a dreame, past the wit of man, to say, what dreame it was. 1593 ― Rich. II, ii. iii. 171 Things past redresse, are now with me past care. 1596 ― 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 211 Nay, that's past praying for; I have pepper'd two of them. 1599 Queen Elizabeth Let. to Essex 14 Sept. in Moryson Itin. ii. (1617) 41 It is to Us past comprehension. c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. cxxix, Past reason hunted, and no sooner had, Past reason hated. 1607 Middleton Mich. Term. ii. iii. 384 Nay, 'tis done now, past mending. a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1840) III. 494 It is past my power to compromise a difference betwixt two so great persons. 1708 Swift Death Partridge Wks. 1755 II. i. 258 Yesterday..word was brought me, that he was past hopes. 1782 Cowper Mutual Forbearance 25 Well, I protest 'tis past all bearing. 1827 Carlyle Germ. Rom. II. 289 He now saw nothing past common. 1881 G. M. Hopkins Lett. to R. Bridges (1955) 126, I have become very musical of late... I could make great progress—not in execution: that is past praying for—but in composition and understanding. 1897 Cornh. Mag. June 830 The man who can deliberately set aside his own personal knowledge and the gift of reason and commonsense with which God has endowed him,..is indeed ‘past praying for’. a 1901 Besant Five Years' Tryst, etc. (1902) 129 ‘I cannot help your face’, said the herb-woman; ‘that is past my skill’. 1902 H. James Wings of Dove I. i. 5 The precious name..in spite of the harm her wretched father had done it..was not yet past praying for. 1909 Kipling Rewards & Fairies (1910) 46 I've seen her walk to her own mirror by bye-ends, and the woman that cannot walk straight there is past praying for. 1939 C. Day Lewis Child of Misfortune iii. i. 264 Everything's past praying for. 1962 J. Ludwig in R. Weaver Canad. Short Stories (1968) 2nd Ser. 255 Sidney was past praying for, she herself couldn't have kids. |
b. colloq. Beyond the ability or power of. Esp. in phr. not to put it (or anything) past (someone), to think (a person) quite capable of performing a specific action, or behaving in a specified way.
| 1611 Beaum. & Fl. King & No K. iii. i, You are welcome, sir, I think; but if you be not, 'tis past me To make you so; for I am here a stranger Greater than you. 1859 G. Meredith Juggling Jerry ix, It's past parsons to console us. 1870 G. M. Hopkins Jrnls. & Papers (1959) 198 Br. Yates gave me the following Irish expressions—I wouldn't put it past you or I wouldn't doubt you = It is just what I should expect of you. 1894 Somerville & ‘Ross’ Real Charlotte I. v. 63, I wouldn't put it past Charlotte to be trying to ketch Mr. Dysart. 1912 J. N. McIlwraith Diana of Quebec xvii. 259, I did not put it past her to have a desire to meet the scoundrel once more, since I had assured her he was really a Green Mountain Boy. 1916 H. L. Wilson Somewhere in Red Gap vi. 272, I wouldn't put it past him that he had old Jerry kicked on purpose to-day! 1922 Joyce Ulysses 733, I wouldn't put it past him. 1929 W. Faulkner Sound & Fury 251 I'm not surprised though... I wouldn't put anything past you. 1930 J. B. Priestley Angel Pavement v. 214, I believe he waits until he has the tickets, then rings you up that morning and makes it up... I wouldn't put it past him. 1946 K. Tennant Lost Haven (1947) xv. 240 ‘Bracewell is a boy any mother could trust.’ ‘Don't you be too sure... I wouldn't put anything past that little devil.’ 1953 S. Beckett Watt 16 Poor woman, God forgive her, said Telty. Faith I wouldn't put it past him, said Mr Hackett. 1961 ‘E. Lathen’ Banking on Death (1962) i. 5, I wouldn't put it past him to do this deliberately. 1976 M. Birmingham Heat of Sun ix. 159 ‘Do you think she could possibly consider killing justified for the sake of her deprived flock?’ ‘I wouldn't put it past her’. |
c. past it (slang), incompetent through senility, etc., no longer competent, ineffective after long use; (quot. 1864) dead. Also (with hyphen) attrib.
| 1864 C. M. Yonge Trial II. xi. 197 ‘He is almost past it,’ said Tom, ‘but..he may be roused by my voice.’ 1928 E. Wallace Flying Squad xv. 130 He was a handy old chap—but he was getting rather past it. 1950 ‘J. Guthrie’ Is this what I Wanted? ii. 37 One never dreamed of going to them for advice. The fact was they were past it; they had lived their lives. 1959 Listener 22 Jan. 154/1 They never knew much about it anyway... Ramsay was past it then. 1972 K. Bonfiglioli Don't point that Thing at Me xiv. 118 The faded allure of portly, past-it Mortdecai. 1974 M. Babson Stalking Lamb xix. 138 ‘You're getting past it, Ma.’ Aaron seemed obscurely satisfied by her display of weakness. 1978 Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Dec. 1388/2 Not for him the slumped envy of the past-it fantasizer. |
† d. Beyond the limits of; without. Obs. or arch. past himself, beside himself (now dial.).
| 1470–85 Malory Arthur vii. xxi, So he brenned in loue that he was past hym self in his reason. 1600 W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 132 He was so vexed, lacerated, and calumniated..that he became almost past himselfe. c 1611 Chapman Iliad ii. 331 But Jove hath..cast My life into debates past end. 1618 ― Hesiod (Hooper) 180 That man, put To his fit task, will see it done past talk With any fellow. 1870 W. Morris Earthly Par. (1890) 156/2, I..Am nowise God to give man bliss Past ending. 1903 Eng. Dial. Dict. (Durham), Past hissel. |
† 4. a. More than, above (in number or quantity). (Cf. also 1 c.)
| 1469 Marg. Paston in Lett. II. 385, I have sent to Hary Halman..and he canne not gette passyd v. or viij. at the most. 1470–85 Malory Arthur iv. iv, Ther were founde but lytel past two honderd men slayne. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon iv. 7 They..departyd fro Parys without restynge past one night in a plase. 1598 B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. i. iii. 191 Faith I have not past two shillings, or so. 1608 Topsell Serpents (1658) 744 Their egges are not past so big as pease. 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. x. 47 They haue it not past once in fiue..yeeres. 1668 Sedley Mulb. Gard. ii. i. Wks. 1722 II. 22 The Portion I can give with you does not deserve a Man of past half his Fortune. |
† b. Above in rank or degree. Obs.
| 1551 Crowley Pleas. & Payne 168 But spent all..in rayment past your degree. 1598 Chapman Blind Beg. Alexandria Plays 1873 I. 27 My husband is a Lord, and past a Lord. |
c. Beyond in manner or degree. Now rare. Also dial., in negative sentences.
| c 1611 Chapman Iliad i. 284 He affects, past all men, height. Ibid. xv. 105 His greatness past all other Gods, and that in fortitude, And ev'ry godlike pow'r, he reigns past all endu'd. 1847 C. Brontë J. Eyre xxxvi, He set store on her past every thing. 1897 Bromyard Rec. 9 Dec. (E.D.D.), Fortunately, past a profusion of soot and water, no damage was done. |
B. adv. (absolute use of the prep.; = past the speaker, or the person, point, or place spoken of.)
1. So as to pass or go by; by.
| 1805 Wordsw. Fidelity 32 The sounding blast, That, if it could, would hurry past. 1836 Marryat Japhet iv, We had watched her past. 1846 Worcester s.v., Sometimes incorrectly used for by; as ‘to go past’. 1855 M. Arnold Balder Dead 96 Painfully the hinds With goad and shouting urge their cattle past. 1862 Longfellow The Cumberland 4 The alarum of drums swept past. 1884 W. C. Smith Kildrostan 43 The tread of time as it hastens past. |
2. On one side, aside; as to lay past, to put aside or away, to lay by or save up. Sc. and N. Irel.
| 1830–2 Carleton Traits Irish Peasantry (1843) 260 (E.D.D.) It is not to lay them past to rust. 1847 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. VIII. ii. 377 It is stacked past until the following year. Ibid. 388 It enables the farmer to store past his crop. 1891 Blackw. Mag. Oct. 570, I hed to pit it past in the attic. 1894 Stevenson Puddin iii. 65 I'm prood to think ye're layin' past siller. |
C. Comb. (of prep. or adv.) a. Esp. by 16–17th c. poets, rarely by prose-writers, phrases consisting of past prep. with object (A. 3), which predicatively are written as two words, were frequently used attrib., and then necessarily hyphened to make the syntax clear: thus ‘a malady past cure’, but ‘a past-cure malady’. Among such syntactical combinations are: past-comfort, past-cure, past-feeling (whence past-feelingness), past-good (whence past-good n.), past-helping, past-hoping, past-prayer (as n.), past-price, past-saving, past-shame (whence past-shame n.); also past-human adj., superhuman; past-proportion n., immeasurableness, immensity. Also more recently, past-pointing Med. [tr. G. vorbeizeigen (R. Bárány 1910, in Wien. med. Wochenschr. LX. 2036)], pointing to one side of an object that a person intends to point at, e.g. after being spun round, as a diagnostic test.
| 1553 R. Ascham in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 15 Thei judge bashfull men to be rude, and past-shames to be well manered. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. (1567) 107 The extreme wickednes of some pastgood roisters. a 1586 Sidney Arcadia iii. Wks. 1724 II. 445 Sorrowing not only his own sorrow, but the past-comfort sorrow which he foreknew his mother would take. 1601 Shakes. All's Well ii. i. 124 To prostitute our past-cure malladie To empericks. Ibid. iv. iii. 158 What a past-sauing slaue is this? 1602 J. Davies Mirum in Modum (1878) 6 The Soule is such a precious thing, As cost the price of past-price deerest bloud. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. ii. ii. 29 Will you with Counters summe The past proportion of his infinite? 1614 Sylvester Parl. Vertues Royall 1257 Immortall Beauties of past-humane Soules. 1631 Chapman Caesar & Pompey Plays 1873 III. 143, I be forc't To helpe my Countrey, when it forceth me To this past-helping pickle. 1767 S. Paterson Another Trav. I. 332 Enable me..to rejoice the past-hoping heart. 1876 Farrar Marlb. Serm. xiii. 124 The past-feelingness of a miserable despair. 1876 G. M. Hopkins Wreck of Deutschland xxxiii, in Poems (1967) 62 A vein for the visiting of the past-prayer, pent in prison, The-last-breath penitent spirits. 1916 N.Y. Med. Jrnl. 15 July 100/2 Movement of the endolymph in the semicircular canals in a given direction, stimulates the sensitive hair cells in these canals, and produces definite phenomena. These phenomena are: 1, A twitching of the eyes or nystagmus of a certain type; 2, vertigo; 3, so-called ‘past pointing’; 4, falling reactions. 1934 R. R. Grinker Neurology xiii. 372 In cerebellar disturbances if a past pointing does occur it is outward, no matter where the lesion. 1977 J. Macleod Davidson's Princ. & Pract. Med. (ed. 12) xiv. 662 If a movement is attempted with the eyes closed the finger overshoots towards the side of the cerebellar lesion (‘past-pointing’). |
b. In various nonce-wds. (adjs.), as past-prime, past-the-middle-age; past-due, overdue; past-gone, bygone, former, late; past-meridian (fig.), past one's prime, elderly; past-ordinar Sc., extraordinary, exceptional, uncommon, ‘by-ordinar’.
| 1896 Harper's Mag. XCIII. 158/1, I wrote out the *past-due subscription bill. |
| 1784 R. Bage Barham Downs I. 199 When you reflect upon your *past-gone occupation. |
| 1898 G. Meredith Odes Fr. Hist. 14 Like dotage of the *past-meridian dame For some bright Sungod adolescent. |
| 1823 Galt Entail lxiv, A man o' *past-ordinar sense. 1826 ― Lairds xii, The Doctor is a past ordinar young man. |
| 1883 J. Greenwood Odd People in Odd Places xxiv. 204 These *past-prime belles of the garden. |
| 1844 J. T. J. Hewlett Parsons & W. x, A *past-the-middle-age college bed-maker. |