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once upon a time
Definition
•
used at the beginning of children's stories to mean 'a long time ago'Once upon a time there was a beautiful young princess with long golden hair.
•
used in a slightly literary way when referring to something that happened in the past, especially when showing that you feel sorry that it no longer happensOnce upon a time people knew the difference between right and wrong, but nowadays nobody seems to care.
(Definition of once upon a time from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)
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