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Glite Dictionary
water over the dam

water over the dam

7.5
Something bad that already happened and cannot be changed so do not worry about it
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : agua pasada
  • There's no point worrying about what happened—it's water over the dam.

Examples

  • He apologized for his mistake, but it's just water over the dam now.

  • You can't change the past; it's just water over the dam.

  • All those arguments are water over the dam and we need to move forward.

  • It's all water over the dam now.

  • We can't change the decision now; it's all water over the dam.

  • There's no use dwelling on the argument; it's just water over the dam now.

  • Her regrets about the past are water over the dam and shouldn't affect us anymore.

Synonyms

water under the bridge
vswater over the dam
  • Informal
8 3.9

Something that happened in the past and is no longer important

stresses that it cannot be changed and so should not be a concern
toothpaste is out of the tube
vswater over the dam
  • Informal
9.5

A change that cannot be undone or taken back

urges people to stop worrying and treat it as over

Surface Forms

water over the dam main

Morphology

water + over + the + dam

The literal meanings of 'water', 'over', and 'dam' describe physical phenomena and do not transparently produce the abstract sense 'something is past and cannot be changed.' This phrase is an idiomatic/metaphorical expression (a variant of 'water under the bridge'), so a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words would not reliably infer the intended meaning.

Etymology

The idiom water over the dam comes from the picture of water flowing over a dam, so it cannot be put back. So it means 'something that has already happened and cannot be changed'.