Past; applied to the tense in grammar which expresses an action or being perfectly past or finished, often that which is just past or completed, but without a specification of time. It is called also the perfect tense; as, scripsi, I have written. We say, 'I have written a letter to my correspondent; ' in which sentence, the time is supposed to be not distant and not specified. But when the time is mentioned, we use the imperfect tense so called; as, 'I wrote to my correspondent yesterday.' In this use of the preterit or perfect tense, the English differs from the French, in which j'ai ecrit heir, is correct; but I have written yesterday, would be very bad English.

1. Past; -- applied to a tense which expresses an action or state as past.

2. Belonging wholly to the past; passed by.

The preterit; also, a word in the preterit tense.

Same as Preterit.

Same as Preteritness.

1. The act of going past; the state of being past.

2. In rhetoric, a figure by which, in pretending to pass over any thing, we make a summary mention of it; as, 'I will not say, he is valiant, he is learned, he is just, ' etc. The most artful praises are those bestowed by way of preterition

1. The act of passing, or going past; the state of being past.

2. A figure by which, in pretending to pass over anything, a summary mention of it is made; as, "I will not say, he is valiant, he is learned, he is just." Called also paraleipsis.

3. The omission by a testator of some one of his heirs who is entitled to a portion.

Used only or chiefly in the preterit or past tenses, as certain verbs.

The state of being past. [Little used.]

The quality or state of being past.