as in relics
one that has passed the peak of effectiveness or popularity
now a has-been, the actor's been reduced to appearing on a third-rate reality show
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Recent Examples of Synonyms for has-beens
Noun
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These are not the polished relics of admirals and officers but the everyday possessions of working men who fought and died aboard a burning warship.—
Samantha Agate,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
5 Apr. 2026 -
The sculpture has spent decades inside one of around 16,000 unopened storage containers alongside other rare, uncatalogued relics.—
Andrew Paul,
Popular Science,
2 Apr. 2026
Noun
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If the dinosaurs and woolly mammoths that once roamed the Earth had since crumbled into dust, then what hope was there for humanity?—
Kathryn Hughes,
The New York Review of Books,
4 Apr. 2026
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Birds are thought to have descended from carnivorous dinosaurs that began growing feathers by the Late Jurassic Period; thus, birds are technically one lineage of reptiles.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
2 Apr. 2026
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“Has-beens.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/has-beens. Accessed 6 Apr. 2026.
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