Word.ws English Dictionary

have seen one's day

have seen one's day verb: of a person, thing, idea, etc., to be at the point in a life cycle or career of no longer being useful or effective; to be worn-out.

Verb

have seen one's day (third-person singular simple present has seen one's day, present participle having seen one's day, simple past and past participle had seen one's day)

  1. (idiomatic) Of a person, thing, idea, etc., to be at the point in a life cycle or career of no longer being useful or effective; to be worn-out.
    • Now, as you say, and most every other one says, the grooving plan has seen its day. We must try some other plan.1855 December 22, “To the Editor”, in New York Times, retrieved 18 Jul 2010
    • The old Boeing flying boats have seen their day, he added. They will be replaced with more economical land planes.1945 December 18, “Pan American Reopens Pacific Flights to Manila”, in Milwaukee Journal, retrieved 18 Jul 2010

Forms of have seen one's day

third-person singular presenthas seen one's day
present participlehaving seen one's day
past participlehad seen one's day
pasthad seen one's day
alternative formhave had one's day
alternative formhave had one's day under the sun

Questions about have seen one's day

What does have seen one's day mean?
Have seen one's day means of a person, thing, idea, etc., to be at the point in a life cycle or career of no longer being useful or effective; to be worn-out.
What part of speech is have seen one's day?
Have seen one's day is a verb.
What is the past tense of have seen one's day?
The past tense of have seen one's day is had seen one's day.

Words near have seen one's day in the dictionary

  1. have provinces
  2. have reason
  3. have respect of persons
  4. have second thoughts
  5. have seen better days
  6. have seen one's day
  7. have seen one's last gum tree
  8. have seen this film
  9. have seen this movie
  10. have several seats
  11. have sex

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have seen one's day (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-have seen one's day.ogg.

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