as in relic
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 has-been
In the Seventies, he was mocked as a Vegas has-been in a jumpsuit; in the Eighties, as a cultural colonizer.
—
Rob Sheffield,
Rolling Stone,
19 Feb. 2026
When her estranged daughter unexpectedly moves into their crumbling Manhattan townhouse, the TV has-been is confronted with the one role she’s spent her entire life avoiding: motherhood.
—
Peter White,
Deadline,
19 Feb. 2026
Ken Blake Brea Sorry to see Jerry Neuheisel leave UCLA to join traitor and coaching has-been Chip Kelly at Northwestern.
—
Los Angeles Times,
3 Jan. 2026
All this success begs the legitimate question of how the once-struggling reality show for has-been celebrities reinvented itself and became a pop-cultural phenomenon that any public figure would be lucky to utilize as their re-introduction into the zeitgeist.
—
Mckinley Franklin,
HollywoodReporter,
25 Nov. 2025
In other words, the vainly hopeful Larry is about to endure twin humiliations, leaving him feeling bumped out of his life and into the past—a has-been, instantly old.
—
Richard Brody,
New Yorker,
10 Oct. 2025
DiCaprio makes a great, vital has-been, squinting at the horrors around him in disbelief, but mostly, driven by the need to protect his child.
—
Stephanie Zacharek,
Time,
18 Sep. 2025
And as alcoholic has-been Morris, Matthau was fantastically slovenly and cynical, an anti–role model for the ages.
—
Tim Grierson,
Vulture,
25 July 2025
Rob Sheffield,
Rolling Stone,
19 Feb. 2026
When her estranged daughter unexpectedly moves into their crumbling Manhattan townhouse, the TV has-been is confronted with the one role she’s spent her entire life avoiding: motherhood.
—
Peter White,
Deadline,
19 Feb. 2026
Ken Blake Brea Sorry to see Jerry Neuheisel leave UCLA to join traitor and coaching has-been Chip Kelly at Northwestern.
—
Los Angeles Times,
3 Jan. 2026
All this success begs the legitimate question of how the once-struggling reality show for has-been celebrities reinvented itself and became a pop-cultural phenomenon that any public figure would be lucky to utilize as their re-introduction into the zeitgeist.
—
Mckinley Franklin,
HollywoodReporter,
25 Nov. 2025
In other words, the vainly hopeful Larry is about to endure twin humiliations, leaving him feeling bumped out of his life and into the past—a has-been, instantly old.
—
Richard Brody,
New Yorker,
10 Oct. 2025
DiCaprio makes a great, vital has-been, squinting at the horrors around him in disbelief, but mostly, driven by the need to protect his child.
—
Stephanie Zacharek,
Time,
18 Sep. 2025
And as alcoholic has-been Morris, Matthau was fantastically slovenly and cynical, an anti–role model for the ages.
—
Tim Grierson,
Vulture,
25 July 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for has-been
Noun
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Bulgur is one of those wheat variants that in this country seems tethered to an unfair reputation as a leaden relic of 1970s health-food fads.
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His remains were unearthed in 2022, along with 13 others, as archeologists were working to preserve shallow battlefield graves from erosion and relic hunters.
Noun
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The sculptor has designed giant dinosaurs and monuments to his country’s independence heroes in Cutral Co, an oil-producing town that has never attracted nearly as much attention as other Patagonian communities surrounded by picturesque lakes and mountains.
-
As anyone knows on the digital side of things, waiting half a year to make orders that respond to live customer action data makes for lags as long as dinosaur legs.
Cite this Entry
“Has-been.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/has-been. Accessed 27 Jun. 2026.
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