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What is "has-been"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
has-been
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A peerless champion of his own era, he had been reduced to an ineffectual has-been by the modern gunslingers.
▪ Employment training in Britain is a scandal and is often run by Government-appointed has-beens from industry accountable to no-one.
▪ The arrogance of some of the has-beens in the Athletico squad is pathetic.
▪ The country is crying out for leadership and all Mr Smith has to offer is a talking-shop for academics and political has-beens.
▪ To say they are has-beens is cruel, but their recent Grand Slam record speaks for itself.
▪ Triumph Tigers should belong to boys like Nails, rough and lawless, not hopeless has-beens like himself.
Wiktionary
has-been

n. (context pejorative English) A person, especially one formerly popular or influential, who continues in their field after their popularity or effectiveness has peaked and is now in decline.

WordNet
has-been

n. someone who is no longer popular [syn: back-number]

Usage examples of "has-been".

When you're an old has-been politician look me up, and we'll open a chain of beaneries together.

I cannot tell you how much I look forward to seeing tomorrow's headlines in all the American newspapers which so contemptuously wrote me off as a nonentity and washed-up has-been when I was deported two years ago.

A has-been, a may-one-day-be, a dreamfaring dodo bird, and I might have to stay.

It came on then, big and ugly: bye-bye Bleichert at the bus stop, adios shitbird, has-been, never-was, stool pigeon niggertown harness bull.

The has-beens and wanna-bes seemed to have signed on to the anti-war lists on the off chance that their faces might appear in some B-roll on CNN so they could get their AFTRA benefits extended another six months.

What the hell's the use of a couple of ancient has-beens like us getting in the way of youth?

There followed twenty minutes of one-day cricket, a makeshift eleven of boozy has-beens versus some itinerant Negroes.

However long he outlives me, he'll bear the stigma of the has-been cowboy hero who married Jezebel.

Even now that he knew, it was hard to believe, hard to elevate the shambling has-been Gorochenko to the level of arch-plotter, overthrower of the state.

Leave the flummery to the would-bes and the has-beens and the never-will-bes.