Word.ws English Dictionary

water under the bridge

water under the bridge noun: something in the past that cannot be controlled or undone, but must be accepted, forgiven, or forgotten.

Noun

water under the bridge (uncountable)

  1. (idiomatic) Something in the past that cannot be controlled or undone, but must be accepted, forgiven, or forgotten.
    • They agreed that their old disputes were water under the bridge and decided to make a fresh start.
    • Ilsa: It's been a long time.
      Sam: Yes, ma'am. A lot of water under the bridge.1942, Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch, Casablanca

Synonyms of water under the bridge

Questions about water under the bridge

What does water under the bridge mean?
Water under the bridge means something in the past that cannot be controlled or undone, but must be accepted, forgiven, or forgotten.
What part of speech is water under the bridge?
Water under the bridge is a noun.

Words near water under the bridge in the dictionary

  1. water turbines
  2. water turkey
  3. water turkeys
  4. water twist
  5. water twists
  6. water under the bridge
  7. Water Valley
  8. water vapor
  9. water vapor pressure
  10. water vapors
  11. water vapour

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: water under the bridge (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-water under the bridge.ogg.

Cite this entry: “water under the bridge.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/water_under_the_bridge. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.