past one's prime

Prepositional phrase

1. No longer in an ideal condition.
   • "Perhaps it might be nearer realisation," growls the cynic, "if we could only produce men according to demand, as we do horses, and promptly send them to the slaughter-house when past their prime"—which, of course, is not to be thought of.1890, William Booth, “The Submerged Tenth”, in In Darkest England and the Way Out, page 19
   • […]he saw the pretty face grow thin and white, the hair grow scanty, the pretty hands, worn down brutally by work, become like the claws of an old animal—then, when the man was past his prime, the difficulty of getting jobs, the small wages he had to take; […]1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter CXIV, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   passé, past it, stale