I.
noun
1 time before the present
ADJECTIVE
▪ immediate , recent
▪ ancient , dim and distant ( BrE ), distant , remote
▪
Many modern festivals can be traced back to an ancient ~.
▪
It all happened in the distant ~.
VERB + PAST
▪ cling to , live in , relive
▪
We're going to have to stop living in the ~ and invest in new technology if the company is to survive.
▪ reconstruct , recreate
▪
Archaeology provides us with tools for reconstructing the ~.
▪ erase , forget
▪ belong in , belong to
▪
Those memories belong to the ~ and I don't want to think about them.
PREPOSITION
▪ from the ~
▪
Memories from the ~ came flooding back to him.
▪ in the ~
▪
I admit that I have made mistakes in the ~.
▪ into the ~
▪
events stretching back many years into the ~
▪ of the ~
▪
great artists of the ~
PHRASES
▪ be all in the ~
▪
Don't worry about it—it's all in the ~ now.
▪ a break with the ~
▪
In an effort to make a complete break with the ~, she went to live in Morocco.
▪ a glimpse of the ~
▪
The uncovering of the buried town gives us a unique glimpse of the ~.
▪ a link with the ~
▪
The old market is a living link with the ~, unchanged for hundreds of years.
▪ nostalgia for the ~
▪ a thing of the ~
▪
a new device that makes such problems a thing of the ~
2 sb/sth's history
ADJECTIVE
▪ historic ( esp. BrE ), historical
▪ forgotten
▪
He was forced to confront his forgotten ~.
▪ colourful/colorful , rich
▪ chequered/checkered , murky ( esp. BrE ), painful , sordid , troubled
▪ mysterious
▪ criminal
▪ glorious , illustrious ( esp. BrE )
▪
Few remnants remain of the city's glorious ~.
▪ cultural , political
▪ ancestral , evolutionary
▪ colonial , imperial , industrial
▪
These customs are a relic of the country's colonial ~.
VERB + PAST
▪ reflect on
▪ recapture
▪
He tried in vain to recapture his ~.
▪ erase , escape from , forget , put behind you , wipe out
▪
Political parties cannot escape from their ~s any more than individuals can.
▪
Therapy helped Dan put the ~ behind him.
PREPOSITION
▪ from your ~
▪
ghosts from his ~
▪ in your ~
▪
at some time in her ~
II.
adj.
Past is used with these nouns: ↑ autumn , ↑ century , ↑ champion , ↑ decade , ↑ deed , ↑ epoch , ↑ era , ↑ error , ↑ experience , ↑ failure , ↑ fall , ↑ fortnight , ↑ generation , ↑ history , ↑ incident , ↑ life , ↑ mistake , ↑ month , ↑ precedent , ↑ president , ↑ quarter , ↑ record , ↑ research , ↑ self , ↑ sin , ↑ spring , ↑ summer , ↑ tense , ↑ week , ↑ winter , ↑ wrong , ↑ year