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
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
Her being nominated for playing a grotesque has-been is, at the very least, a delicious irony.
—Tom Gliatto, People.com, 2 Mar. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for has-been
Noun
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The six-story, century-old brick building is topped with a sixty-five-foot radio tower bearing the Clermont name—an original relic that came down years ago but was proudly resurrected at the hotel’s splashy grand opening in 2018.—
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Claw machines could have been relics, lost to the ‘90s alongside spitball shooters and mall photobooths.—
Noun
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In addition to the parks, Moab is home to myriad petroglyphs, seen along Hidden Valley Trail, and dinosaur tracks located within Mill Canyon.—
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And if the sneakers themselves didn’t go heavy enough with the prehistoric theme, the shoebox is also fully decked out with a dinosaur motif which, when opened, is intended to look like a Tyrannosaurus opening its mouth.—
Cite this Entry
“Has-been.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/has-been. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
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