ADJ
- immediate, recent
- ancient, (dim and) distant, remote
- Many modern festivals can be traced back to an ancient past. It all happened in the distant past
VERB + PAST
- cling to, live in
- We're going to have to stop living in the past and invest in new technology if the firm is to survive
- belong in/to
- Those memories belong to the past and I don't want to think about them
PREP
- from the ~
- Memories from the past came flooding back to him
- in the ~
- I admit that I have made mistakes in the past
- into the ~
- events stretching back many years into the past
- of the ~
- great artists of the past
PHRASES
- be all in the past
- Don't worry about it?it's all in the past now
- a break with the past
- In an effort to make a complete break with the past, she sold everything and went abroad
- a glimpse of the past
- The uncovering of the buried town gives us a unique glimpse of the past
- a link with the past
- The old market is a living link with the past, unchanged for hundreds of years
- nostalgia for the past, a thing of the past
- a new device that makes such problems a thing of the past
ADJ
- historic, historical
- colourful, rich
- chequered, murky, sordid
- criminal
- glorious, illustrious
- Few remnants remain of the city's glorious past
- cultural, political
- ancestral, evolutionary
- imperial, industrial
VERB + PAST
- reflect on/upon
- recapture
- trying in vain to recapture his past
- erase, escape from, put behind you, wipe out
- Political parties cannot escape from their pasts any more than individuals can. The counselling helped Dan to put the past behind him
PREP
- from your ~
- ghosts from his past
- in your ~
- at some time in her past