Word.ws English Dictionary

live in the past

live in the past verb: to dwell on and ruminate about past events.

Verb

live in the past (third-person singular simple present lives in the past, present participle living in the past, simple past and past participle lived in the past)

  1. (idiomatic) To dwell on and ruminate about past events.
    Synonyms:
    dwell on the past
  2. (idiomatic) To be steeped in outdated traditions, fashions, beliefs, etc.

Synonyms of live in the past

  • dwell on the past

Forms of live in the past

third-person singular presentlives in the past
present participleliving in the past
past participlelived in the past
pastlived in the past

Questions about live in the past

What does live in the past mean?
Live in the past means to dwell on and ruminate about past events.
What part of speech is live in the past?
Live in the past is a verb.
What is the past tense of live in the past?
The past tense of live in the past is lived in the past.

Words near live in the past in the dictionary

  1. live houses
  2. live in
  3. live in each other's pockets
  4. live in hope
  5. live in sin
  6. live in the past
  7. live in the shadow of
  8. live Internet feed
  9. live Internet feeds
  10. live it up
  11. live large

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: live in the 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: “live in the past.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/live_in_the_past. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.