bygone

[ bahy-gawn, -gon ]

adjective

1. past; gone by; earlier; former:

   The faded photograph brought memories of bygone days.

noun

1. Usually bygones. that which is past:

   Let's not talk of bygones.

bygone

/ ˈbaɪˌɡɒn /

adjective

1. usually prenominal past; former

noun

1. often plural a past occurrence
2. often plural an artefact, implement, etc, of former domestic or industrial use, now often collected for interest
3. let bygones be bygones
   let bygones be bygones to agree to forget past quarrels

Word History and Origins

Origin of bygone¹

1375–1425; late Middle English (north) by-gane; gone, by

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. let bygones be bygones, to decide to forget past disagreements; become reconciled:

   Let's let bygones be bygones and be friends again.

Example Sentences

In a bygone era, visitors were allowed to feed them during ranger programs, but luckily management wised up and realized that, as the saying goes, a fed bear is a dead bear.

From Outside Online

If the Rockets decide to turn seller at the trade deadline, they could nab a trove of assets in exchange for their vets, newcomers or remnants of the bygone Harden era.

From FiveThirtyEight

A history of a gangster in a bygone time promises to be riveting, but there’s not enough there there to make this a book you can’t put down.

From Washington Post

The schools’ marching bands played only on that screen and only in past appearances, meaning some clarinetist or other might have graduated without ever playing at a Rose Bowl, only to emerge from bygone to play at a Rose Bowl.

From Washington Post

I deployed across the vast Pacific Ocean with a hundred other sailors on the USS Connecticut, a Seawolf-class ship engineered in the bygone Cold War era to be one of the fastest, quietest, and deepest-diving submersibles ever constructed.

From Nautilus

Blues music is often treated like a museum piece, a relic from a bygone day, but this band will make you want to get up and dance.

From The Daily Beast

The outsized personalities of that time are also of a bygone era.

From The Daily Beast

In those bygone days before cell phones, they had to rely on an elaborate “buddy system,” a telephone tree, and pay phones.

From The Daily Beast

Three years on, doesn't it already feel like a leftover from a bygone era?

From The Daily Beast

And now, dig into this profile of Royko, a giant from a bygone time.

From The Daily Beast

The "organ beater" of bygone days was invariably accompanied by the "organ pumper," often by several of them.

From Project Gutenberg

But he failed to impose upon the Colonel, and was even far from impressing him with this trumped-up knowledge of bygone days.

From Project Gutenberg

It is indeed in the fancy of Shakespeare that this bygone sweetness and irony seem the oftener to be kindled and awakened.

From Project Gutenberg

Greetings to you and other Speculatives of our date, long bygone, alas!

From Project Gutenberg

In the regions of the Midi, of bygone civilization, historical castles still standing are rare.

From Project Gutenberg