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What's the proper English adjective for:

  1. A one-time ticket (for entrance somewhere, to use some sort of transport to travel somewhere, etc) that's been properly used once and thus no longer valid to be used for the second time?
  2. The same question about ticket that allowed to travel multiple times (for example, a day travelcard or a prepaid card such an Oyster in London or OV-chipkaart in Netherlands) which is no longer valid due to time limit's being expired or prepaid number of travels is done, etc?

My best bet so far was calling it a "used" ticket, but analyzing COCA shows that "used" is never used as an adjective with "ticket", only was a verb (i.e. as in "he used his ticket"). I've also thought about:

  • "stamped" ticket — but it's obviously wrong meaning: you carry a "stamped" ticket on you while still travelling in a transport and it is valid during that time; what I want to express is a ticket that's been used properly and thus no longer valid.
  • "expired" ticket — it's also a bit off:
    • tickets can become "expired", but that doesn't mean that they were used successfully,
    • it emphasizes that time was out for that ticket, but it doesn't really always about time — sometimes it's just single-use ticket, no time involved.
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    Google Ngram Viewer says "used ticket" is fine (link), and it sounds fine to me as a native English speaker. You might also consider "spent ticket" or "invalid ticket" as well. Commented Jan 15, 2016 at 18:53
  • @KevinWorkman: Google Ngram is very imprecise if you want to use it as a language corpus. I'm almost sure that "user ticket" search indeed includes results when "used" is a verb, but anyway, there's no way to check. "Invalid" ticket seems to carry a different connotation as well: ticket can become "invalid" in more ways than those that imply successful usage. Probably "used" or "spent" might be what I'm looking for. Care to post an answer?
    – GreyCat
    Commented Jan 15, 2016 at 21:31
  • Were you able to find a good fit?
    – MatTheCat
    Commented May 6, 2018 at 13:08
  • @MatTheCat Probably "used" is ok, as per KevinWorkman.
    – GreyCat
    Commented May 9, 2018 at 12:03

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