has-been (n.)

"one who has outlived his fame," c. 1600 (as hes-beene), from the verbal phrase; see has + been.

Entries linking to has-been

past participle of be. Dismissive slang phrase been there, done that attested from 1994 (been there "had the experience," usually of something disreputable, is from 1880s).

has (v.)

third person singular present indicative of have.

never-was (n.)

"person who never amounted to anything," 1911, from never + was; probably coined to go with used-to-be or has-been.

Trends of has-been

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/. Ngrams are probably unreliable.

More to Explore

hippophagy

Europeans have generally regarded horse-flesh as unfit for food; but hippophagy or horse-eating has always existed among...some rude races, and has been advocated by many gastronomers in Europe....In Paris horse-flesh has long been surreptitiously dealt in as a cheap article of diet, and its sale, under strict official...The necessary use of it there during the siege of 1870-1 brought it into more general favor, which has been maintained....

cocoa

underway in English when the printers of Johnson's dictionary ran together the entries for coco and cocoa, after which it has...never been undone....Cocoa has been the regular spelling from c. 1800....

heroin

hērōs "hero" (see hero (n.1)) because of the euphoric feeling the drug provides, but no evidence for this seems to have been...A new hypnotic, to which the name of 'heroin' has been given, has been tried in the medical clinic of Professor Gerhardt...

moldwarp

Old Saxon moldwerp, Dutch mulworp, Norwegian moldvarp, Danish muldvarp, Old High German multwurf, German Maulwurf (which has...been influenced by Maul "mouth")....For many years it has been only a provincial word....

cable

It is proper to say "it has been cabled," instead of "it has been telegraphed over the Atlantic cable."...

Maranatha

form of an untranslated Aramaic (Semitic) word in I Corinthians xvi.22, where it follows Greek anathema (with which it has...no grammatical connection), and therefore has been taken as part of a phrase which is used as a curse (see anathema)....The Aramaic word has been explained as "Our Lord, come thou" or "Our Lord hath come," apparently a solemn formula of confirmation...

patten

The immediate source has been sought in Celtic [Barnhart] and Germanic [OED], but evidence is wanting....This ringed patten has been used in England until a recent time, but has been little known in the United States....

protest

c. 1400, "avowal, pledge, solemn declaration," from Old French protest, from protester, from Latin protestari "declare publicly, testify, protest," from pro- "forth, before" (from PIE root *per- (1) "forward," hence "in front of, before") + testari "testify," from testis "witness

other

Old English oþer "second, the second of two; additional, further" (adj.), also as a pronoun, "one of the two; a different person or thing from the one in view," from Proto-Germanic *anthera- (source also of Old Saxon athar, Old Frisian other, Old Norse annarr, Middle Dutch and Du

meat

Middle English mēte, from Old English mete "food, nourishment, sustenance" (paired with drink), "item of food; animal food, fodder," also "a meal, repast," from Proto-Germanic *mati (source also of Old Frisian mete, Old Saxon meti, Old Norse matr, Old High German maz, Gothic mats

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updated on October 10, 2017

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Dictionary entries near has-been

Harvard

harvest

harvester

Harvey

has

has-been

hasenpfeffer

hash

hashish

Hasidic

Hasidim