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Glite Dictionary
🎯 Very skilled person 🏅 Former leader
past master

past master

7.4
A person who used to be the leader of a group or organization
  • noun
  • /pæst ˈmæstər/
translation icon : maestro anterior
  • After serving as chair for a decade, he became a past master of the organization.

Examples

  • The organization hired a past master to lead the project.

  • As a past master of the lodge, she advised new members on traditions.

  • He was honored at the reunion as a respected past master.

  • The past masters of the guild met to discuss new regulations.

  • As a past master of carpentry, she could build almost anything with ease.

  • The past master of the art of negotiation shared his strategies with the team.

  • He was considered a past master of the culinary arts, having trained under the best chefs.

Synonyms

predecessor
vspast master
122 5.3

A person who held the job before the current holder

is specifically a former holder of a leading post in a society or profession

Surface Forms

past master singular
past masters plural

Morphology

past + master

While 'master' clearly denotes an expert, the modifier 'past' does not transparently contribute the sense 'very experienced' and can easily be misread as 'former'. The combined meaning is therefore partially predictable from the parts (expert + experience) but relies on a conventionalized collocation that a B1 learner may not infer without prior exposure.

Etymology

Past master comes from old craft groups where the leader was called a master, and someone who had already served in that role was a past master. So the term today means 'a former head'.