Tra từ past - Từ điển Oxford Advanced Learner 8th

past [past pasts] adjective, noun, preposition, adverb BrE [pɑːst] NAmE [pæst]
adjective
1. gone by in time
•in past years/centuries/ages
•in times past
• The time for discussion is past.
2. only before noun gone by recently; just ended
• I haven't seen much of her in the past few weeks.
• The past month has been really busy at work.
3. only before noun belonging to an earlier time
•past events
• From past experience I'd say he'd probably forgotten the time.
•past and present students of the college
• Let's forget about who was more to blame— it's all past history.
4. only before noun (grammar)connected with the form of a verb used to express actions in the past

Word Origin:
Middle English: variant of passed, past participle of ↑pass.

Thesaurus:
past adj.
1. usually before noun
•In past years the industry received large subsidies.
previous • • former • • old • • distant • • remote • |formal prior • |written bygone •
Opp: present
(a) past/previous/former/distant/remote/bygone era/times
(a) past/previous experience/history/life
a past/previous/former owner/president/prime minister
Past, old or former? Use past or former to talk about times gone by; use old to talk about things from your own life: my old school/colleagues/friends. Former can also describe sth that has changed: the former Yugoslav republic. A former friend is sb who is no longer your friend; an old friend is sb you have known for a long time.
2. only before noun
•I've not seen her in the past few weeks.
last • • previous • |formal preceding •
Opp: next
the past/last/previous/preceding few days/week/month/year/decade/century
the past/last/previous weekend/season/hundred years
Past or last? You can only use past about a period of time that has just gone by; it must be used with the or a determiner such as this:
•The past week has been very busy.
• Last week was very busy.
Past is not used about particular dates, or about things:
•The critics hated her last book.
✗ The critics hated her past book.

Example Bank:
•I haven't seen much of her in the past few weeks.
•In past years the industry received large subsidies.
•Let's forget about who was more to blame— it's all past history.
•The book is a celebration of working class life in times past.
•The past week has been very busy.
•The reunion is for past and present students of the college.
•Theatre in past centuries was mass entertainment, but that is not the case today.
•These past months have been terribly stressful for everyone.
Idiom: ↑past it

noun
1. the pastsingular the time that has gone by; things that happened in an earlier time
• I used to go there often in the past.
•the recent/distant past
• She looked back on the past without regret.
•Writing letters seems to be a thing of the past.
2. countable a person's past life or career
• We don't know anything about his past.
• They say she has a ‘past’ (= bad things in her past life that she wishes to keep secret).
3. the pastsingular (grammar) = ↑past tense
see a blast from the past at ↑blast _n., the (dim and) distant past at ↑distant, live in the past at ↑live ¹

Word Origin:
Middle English: variant of passed, past participle of ↑pass.

Thesaurus:
past noun
1. the past sing.
•It all happened in the distant past.
history • |informal the old days •
Opp: the future, Opp: the present
in the past/(sth's) history/the old days
sth's colourful/rich/chequered/glorious past/history
(the/sth's) recent/ancient/medieval past/history
2. C, usually sing.
•She didn't tell them about her boyfriend's criminal past.
background • • record • • history • • track record • • life history • • upbringing • • origins •
Opp: future
a colouful/chequered past/history
sb's criminal past/background/record/history

Example Bank:
•Archaeology provides us with tools for reconstructing the past.
•Don't worry about it— it's all in the past now.
•Few remnants remain of the city's glorious past.
•He tried in vain to recapture his past.
•He was forced to confront his forgotten past.
•I admit that I have made mistakes in the past.
•In an effort to make a complete break with the past, she sold everything and went abroad.
•It all happened in the distant past.
•Many modern festivals can be traced back to an ancient past.
•Memories from the past came flooding back to him.
•Political parties cannot escape from their pasts any more than individuals can.
•The counselling helped Dan to put the past behind him.
•The old market is a living link with the past, unchanged for hundreds of years.
•The uncovering of the buried town gives us a unique glimpse of the past.
•These customs are a relic of the country's colonial past.
•Those memories belong to the past and I don't want to think about them.
•We're going to have to stop living in the past and invest in new technology if the company is to survive.
•a new device that makes such problems a thing of the past
•at some time in her past
•events stretching back many years into the past
•ghosts from his past
•great artists of the past
•She didn't tell them about her boyfriend's criminal past.
•The country still suffers as a result of its colonial past.
•They say she has a ‘past’.
•We don't know anything about his past.

preposition
1. (NAmE also after)later than sth
•half past two
•ten (minutes) past six
• There's a bus at twenty minutes past the hour (= at 1.20, 2.20, etc.).
• We arrived at two o'clock and left at ten past (= ten minutes past two).
•It was past midnight when we got home.
2. on or to the other side of sb/sth
• We live in the house just past the church.
• He hurried past them without stopping.
•He just walked straight past us!
3. above or further than a particular point or stage
• Unemployment is now past the 3 million mark.
• The flowers are past their best.
•He's past his prime.
•She's long past retirement age.
•Honestly, I'm past caring what happens (= I can no longer be bothered to care).

Word Origin:
Middle English: variant of passed, past participle of ↑pass.

adverb
1. from one side of sth to the other
• I called out to him as he ran past.
2. used to describe time passing
Syn: ↑by
• A week went past and nothing had changed.

Word Origin:
Middle English: variant of passed, past participle of ↑pass.

See also: ↑after