noun

• A person or thing considered to be outmoded or no longer of any significance.

  More example sentences

  • ‘a political has-been’
  • ‘The Labour backbenches are now stuffed with the disappointed, the thwarted, the fired, the has-beens and those that were never likely to amount to anything in the first place.’
  • ‘The show, which begins tomorrow and features the traditional line-up of has-beens and never-weres, is nonetheless set to attract a massive audience.’
  • ‘He was the one genuine watchable talent in a particularly gruesome collection of minor career-boosting has-beens and wannabe-agains.’
  • ‘While many solo acts from the '80s are one-hit wonders and has-beens, Finn clearly breaks the mold.’
  • ‘Other housemates evoke the ghosts of yesterday's popular culture, as the has-beens who populate reality TV tend to do.’

  Synonyms

  failure, non-achiever, underachiever, ne'er-do-well, born loser, dead loss, nonentity, nobody