"water under the bridge" meaning in English

See water under the bridge in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-water under the bridge.ogg [Australia]
Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} water under the bridge (uncountable)
  1. (idiomatic) Something in the past that cannot be controlled or undone, but must be accepted, forgiven, or forgotten. Tags: idiomatic, uncountable Synonyms: water over the dam Related terms: ancient history, bygones, cry over spilt milk, here we are, irreversibility, what's done is done Translations (something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted): 過去的事 (Chinese Mandarin), 过去的事 (guòqù de shì) (Chinese Mandarin), gedane zaken maken geen keer (Dutch), mennyt (Finnish), ollut ja mennyt (Finnish), histoire ancienne [feminine] (French), de l’eau a coulé sous les ponts (French), Schnee von gestern (German), νερό κι αλάτι (neró ki aláti) (Greek), sok víz lefolyt azóta a Dunán (Hungarian), 終わったこと (owatta koto) (Japanese), snøen som falt i fjor (Norwegian Bokmål), po ptokach [idiomatic] (Polish), águas passadas [feminine, plural] (Portuguese), águas passadas não movem moinhos (Portuguese), прошлогодний снег (prošlogodnij sneg) [masculine] (Russian), agua pasada (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-water_under_the_bridge-en-noun-2kwWF16F Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Russian terms with redundant script codes

Download JSON data for water under the bridge meaning in English (4.9kB)

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      "expansion": "water under the bridge (uncountable)",
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  "lang_code": "en",
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          "text": "They agreed that their old disputes were water under the bridge and decided to make a fresh start.",
          "type": "example"
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        {
          "ref": "1942, Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch, Casablanca",
          "text": "Ilsa: It's been a long time.\nSam: Yes, ma'am. A lot of water under the bridge.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Bob Dylan (lyrics and music), “Things Have Changed”",
          "text": "Lot of water under the bridge; lot of other stuff, too / Don’t get up, gentlemen, I’m only passing through",
          "type": "quotation"
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      "glosses": [
        "Something in the past that cannot be controlled or undone, but must be accepted, forgiven, or forgotten."
      ],
      "id": "en-water_under_the_bridge-en-noun-2kwWF16F",
      "links": [
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          "undone"
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        [
          "accepted",
          "accepted"
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        [
          "forgiven",
          "forgiven"
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          "forgotten",
          "forgotten"
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Something in the past that cannot be controlled or undone, but must be accepted, forgiven, or forgotten."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "ancient history"
        },
        {
          "word": "bygones"
        },
        {
          "word": "cry over spilt milk"
        },
        {
          "word": "here we are"
        },
        {
          "word": "irreversibility"
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        {
          "word": "what's done is done"
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      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "water over the dam"
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      "tags": [
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      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
          "word": "過去的事"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "guòqù de shì",
          "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
          "word": "过去的事"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
          "word": "gedane zaken maken geen keer"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
          "word": "mennyt"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
          "word": "ollut ja mennyt"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "histoire ancienne"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
          "word": "de l’eau a coulé sous les ponts"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
          "word": "Schnee von gestern"
        },
        {
          "code": "el",
          "lang": "Greek",
          "roman": "neró ki aláti",
          "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
          "word": "νερό κι αλάτι"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
          "word": "sok víz lefolyt azóta a Dunán"
        },
        {
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "owatta koto",
          "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
          "word": "終わったこと"
        },
        {
          "code": "nb",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
          "word": "snøen som falt i fjor"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
          "tags": [
            "idiomatic"
          ],
          "word": "po ptokach"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
          "tags": [
            "feminine",
            "plural"
          ],
          "word": "águas passadas"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
          "word": "águas passadas não movem moinhos"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "prošlogodnij sneg",
          "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "прошлогодний снег"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
          "word": "agua pasada"
        }
      ]
    }
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      "audio": "En-au-water under the bridge.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/bb/En-au-water_under_the_bridge.ogg/En-au-water_under_the_bridge.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/En-au-water_under_the_bridge.ogg",
      "tags": [
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  "word": "water under the bridge"
}
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "ancient history"
    },
    {
      "word": "bygones"
    },
    {
      "word": "cry over spilt milk"
    },
    {
      "word": "here we are"
    },
    {
      "word": "irreversibility"
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      "word": "what's done is done"
    }
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          "ref": "1942, Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch, Casablanca",
          "text": "Ilsa: It's been a long time.\nSam: Yes, ma'am. A lot of water under the bridge.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "2000, Bob Dylan (lyrics and music), “Things Have Changed”",
          "text": "Lot of water under the bridge; lot of other stuff, too / Don’t get up, gentlemen, I’m only passing through",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something in the past that cannot be controlled or undone, but must be accepted, forgiven, or forgotten."
      ],
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        "(idiomatic) Something in the past that cannot be controlled or undone, but must be accepted, forgiven, or forgotten."
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        {
          "word": "water over the dam"
        }
      ],
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
      "word": "過去的事"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "guòqù de shì",
      "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
      "word": "过去的事"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
      "word": "gedane zaken maken geen keer"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
      "word": "mennyt"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
      "word": "ollut ja mennyt"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "histoire ancienne"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
      "word": "de l’eau a coulé sous les ponts"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
      "word": "Schnee von gestern"
    },
    {
      "code": "el",
      "lang": "Greek",
      "roman": "neró ki aláti",
      "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
      "word": "νερό κι αλάτι"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
      "word": "sok víz lefolyt azóta a Dunán"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "owatta koto",
      "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
      "word": "終わったこと"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
      "word": "snøen som falt i fjor"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "word": "po ptokach"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
      "tags": [
        "feminine",
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "águas passadas"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
      "word": "águas passadas não movem moinhos"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "prošlogodnij sneg",
      "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "прошлогодний снег"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "something in the past that cannot be controlled but must be accepted",
      "word": "agua pasada"
    }
  ],
  "word": "water under the bridge"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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