Meaning of might-have-been | Babel Free

Definitions

Someone or something whose potential greatness was not achieved.

Examples

“But no more imposing might-have-been was there in Great Britain than the Glasgow & North Western Railway, which was intended to run from Glasgow to Inverness via Glencoe and the Great Glen.”

“One of the might-have-beens of railway history, however, would have altered the appearance of Monsal Dale considerably. The western portion of the Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway (projected in 1891), from Chesterfield to Warrington, was planned to cross the dale and the Midland Line by a viaduct 543 yds. long and 272 ft. above the bed of the River Wye.”

CEFR level