passé

comparative more passé · superlative most passé · alternative passe

1. colloquialDated; out of style; old-fashioned.

   We'll paint the town blue 'cause, baby, red is so passé.

   2007, “Turn On Billie”, performed by The Pierces

   4 more examples

   Mary felt annoyed at the girl; just because bras had become passé, did a girl with so pronounced a bosom have to cater to fashion? In this case practicality dictated a bra, and Mary stood at the desk feeling herself flushing with disapproval.

   1964, Philip K. Dick, “FOUR”, in Clans of the Alphane Moon, United States: Ace Books, →OCLC; republished London: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1996, →ISBN, page 27

   I never thought you'd be a junkie, because heroin is so passé.

   1997, Courtney Taylor-Taylor, “Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth”, performed by The Dandy Warhols

   It is perhaps inevitable that a movement that was the height of fashion in the last decade would start to seem passé in this one. That’s how style works; the young and innovative distinguish themselves by breaking with the conventions of their predecessors.

   2022 June 17, Michelle Goldberg, “The Future Isn’t Female Anymore”, in The New York Times

   Then, like side fringes, Smirnoff Ice and tights under denim shorts, smoking was suddenly passé – distasteful, even gross.

   2023 June 16, Daisy Jones, “Cool, sexy and stinking of smoke: why are TV dramas giving cigarettes a comeback?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   Synonyms: disused, outdate, outworn, anachronistic, antediluvial, antediluvian, antiquated, antique

2. Past one's prime; worn; faded.

   The coaching stock is in general in a very passé condition, but the ex-royal saloon, though needing a coat of paint outside, as another photograph shows, is spotless inside.

   1939 November, “Pertinent Paragraphs: The Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 357

   Synonyms: raddled, wasted, worn-out, clapped out, damaged, defective, deteriorated, dilapidated

plural passés · alternative passe

1. fencingAn attack that passes the target without hitting.