Word.ws English Dictionary

getting past

getting past is the present participle of get past.

Meaning of get past

Verb

get past (third-person singular simple present gets past, present participle getting past, simple past got past, past participle (UK) got past or (US) gotten past)

  1. To continue around a blockage; to get around (something); to surpass something that is in the way.
  2. To cause something to get around a blockage; to cause to get around or surpass something that is in the way.
  3. (figuratively) To pass by unnoticed by someone who would have the power to halt or correct it.
    • He was an intelligent mathematician, and very few mistakes got past him in his works.
  4. (broadly, figuratively) To get through a difficult time; to overcome a source of grief.
    Synonyms:
    reach past
  5. (broadly, figuratively) To cause someone to overcome a source of grief or get through a difficult time.

Questions about getting past

What is getting past the present participle of?
Getting past is the present participle of get past.

Words near getting past in the dictionary

  1. getting outside of
  2. getting over
  3. getting over on
  4. getting over oneself
  5. getting over the line
  6. getting past
  7. getting past oneself
  8. getting physical
  9. getting ready
  10. getting real
  11. getting religion

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: getting past (page history and authors); get past (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “getting past.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/getting_past. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.