Etymology From Middle English passen, from Old French passer (“to step, walk, pass”), from Vulgar Latin *passāre (“step, walk, pass”), derived from Latin passus (“a step”), from Proto-Italic *pat-s-tus, from Proto-Indo-European *peth₂- (“to spread, stretch out”). Cognate with Old English fæþm (“armful, fathom”). More at fathom. Displaced native Old English genġan.
To go past, by, over, or through; to proceed from one side to the other of; to move past.
You will pass a house on your right.
We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. We passed on the way the van of the guests from Asquith.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
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The dinghy was trailing astern at the end of its painter, and Merrion looked at it as he passed. He saw that it was a battered-looking affair of the prahm type, with a blunt snout, and like the parent ship, had recently been painted a vivid green.1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick:
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To cause to move or go; to send; to transfer from one person, place, or condition to another.
The waiter passed biscuits and cheese.
John passed Suzie a note.
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The torch was passed from hand to hand.
I had only time to pass my eye over the medals.1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
Waller […] passed over five thousand horse and foot by Newbridge.1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, (please specify |book=I to XVI), in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the [Sheldonian] Theater:
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Medicine, Sciences To eliminate (something) from the body by natural processes.
He was passing blood in both his urine and his stool.
The poison had been passed by the time of the autopsy.
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Nautical, Transport To take a turn with (a line, gasket, etc.), as around a sail in furling, and make secure.
› To change place. › To make various kinds of movement.
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Ball games, Games, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Soccer, Sports To kick (the ball) with precision rather than at full force.
20 June 2010, The Guardian, Rob Smyth Iaquinta passes it coolly into the right-hand corner as Paston dives the other way.
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Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports To move (the ball or puck) to a teammate.
Brady passed the ball to nine different receivers and handed it off to seven.2017 September 18, Nicole Yang, “What you need to know about the Patriots’ big win — and their next opponent”, in Boston Globe:
When it's finished cooking, you should pass the sauce to get rid of any lumps.
› To change in state or status
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To progress from one state to another; to advance.
He passed from youth into old age.
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To depart, to cease, to come to an end.
At first, she was worried, but that feeling soon passed.
Beauty's a charm, but soon the charm will pass.1697, Virgil, “Pastoral 2”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
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The slightest effort made the patient cough. He would stand leaning on a stick and holding a hand to his side, and when the paroxysm had passed it left him shaking.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
The crisis passed as she'd prayed it would, but it remained to be seen just how much damage had been done.1995, Penny Richards, The Greatest Gift of All:
He attempted the examination, but did not expect to pass.
Of the Ancient Wonders, only the pyramids have passed the test of time.
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To advance through all the steps or stages necessary to become valid or effective; to obtain the formal sanction of (a legislative body).
Despite the efforts of the opposition, the bill passed.
The bill passed both houses of Congress.
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The bill passed the Senate, but did not pass in the House.
But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.2012 March 23, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87:
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Law To be conveyed or transferred by will, deed, or other instrument of conveyance.
The estate passes by the third clause in Mr Smith's deed to his son.
When the old king passed away with only a daughter as an heir, the throne passed to a woman for the first time in centuries.
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To cause to advance by stages of progress; to carry on with success through an ordeal, examination, or action; specifically, to give legal or official sanction to; to ratify; to enact; to approve as valid and just.
He passed the bill through the committee.
Pass the happy news.1855, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page)”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
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Law To make a judgment on or upon a person or case.
And within three dayes twelve knyghtes passed uppon hem; and they founde Sir Palomydes gylty, and Sir Saphir nat gylty, of the lordis deth.1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X:
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To utter; to pronounce; to pledge.
I may almost depend on your own justice, and leave it to yourself to pass sentence on your own conduct1749, Henry Fielding, chapter XII, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book XIX:
Father, thy word is passed.1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
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To change from one state to another (without the implication of progression).
And rising out of the fourth stage of deep meditation he entered into the state of mind to which the infinity of space is alone present. And passing out of the mere consciousness of the infinity of space he entered into the state of mind to which the infinity of though is along present.1881, Buddhist Suttas, page 115:
Rather, he argues that 'within the zero-stage, all special affections have passed over into a general undifferentiated affection; all special consciousnesses have passed over into the one, general, persistently available background-consciousness of our past, the consciousness of the completely unarticulated, completely indistinct horizon of the past, which brings to a close the living, moving retentional past.'2010, Joaquim Siles i Borràs, The Ethics of Husserl's Phenomenology, →ISBN, page 158:
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What we call 'our' minds are events beginning with birth and ending with death, each again broken up into other events or mental states, into and out of which we are perpetually passing.2011, Thomas Hill Green, R. L. Nettleship, Works of Thomas Hill Green, →ISBN, page lxxviii:
› To move through time.
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Of time To elapse, to be spent.
Their vacation passed pleasantly.
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Of time To spend.
What will we do to pass the time?
To pass commodiously this life.1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost:
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Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0056:
For, although Allan had passed his fiftieth year,[…], one had continued to think of him as a man of whipcord and iron, a natural source of untiring energy, a mechanism that would not wear out.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
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To allow to go by without noticing; to omit attention to; to take no note of; to disregard.
Please you that I may pass / This doing.c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
I pass their warlike pomp, their proud array.1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
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To continue.
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To proceed without hindrance or opposition.
You're late, but I'll let it pass.
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To live through; to have experience of; to undergo; to suffer.
Please you that I may pass / This doing.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
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To happen.
It will soon come to pass.
[…] for the memory of what passed while at that place is almost blank.1876, The Dilemma, Chapter LIII, republished in Littell's Living Age, series 5, volume 14, page 274
› To be accepted.
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Stative To be tolerated as a substitute for something else, to "do".
It isn't ideal, but it will pass.
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Human sciences, Sciences, Social science, SociologyStative To be accepted by others as a member of a race, sex, or other group to which one does not belong or would not have originally appeared to belong; especially to be considered white although one has black ancestry, or a woman although one was assigned male at birth or vice versa.
Chinese sometimes pass for Europeans, but Japs more often approach Western types.1941 December 22, “How to Tell Japs from the Chinese”, in LIFE, page 81:
[…] a situation where I had to know whether I could pass as a woman, and not tell anyone, and not be asked what I was doing dressed as a woman.1999, Irene Preiss, Fixed for Life: The True Saga of How Tom Became Sally, page 249:
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Like Olivia's aunts (described above), many Americans passed as white to resist the racially restrictive one-drop rule and the racial status quo of the Jim Crow era (Daniel 2002; Williamson 1980).2010 December, Nikki Khanna, Cathryn Johnson, “Passing as Black: Racial Identity Work among Biracial Americans”, in Social Psychology Quarterly, volume 73, number 4, →DOI:
› To refrain from doing something.
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To decline something that is offered or available.
He asked me to go to the cinema with him, but I think I'll pass.
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To reject; to pass up.
Instead, the board voted to suspend the dividend, giving Orton his way at last. They passed the dividend again in June 1870 […]2013, Joshua D. Wolff, Western Union and the Creation of the American Corporate Order, 1845-1893, page 187:
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To decline or not attempt to answer a question.
I haven't any idea of the answer, so I'll have to pass.
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In turn-based games, to decline to play in one's turn.
Obsolete To go beyond bounds; to surpass; to be in excess.
This passes, Master Ford.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
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To transcend; to surpass; to excel; to exceed.
And striue to passe[…]Their natiue musicke by her skilfull art:1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 25:
Whose tender power Passes the strength of storms in their most desolate hour.1812–1818, Lord Byron, “(please specify |canto=I to IV)”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. , London: John Murray,, (please specify the stanza number):
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Obsolete To take heed, to have an interest, to care.
Mena[phon]. How now my Lord, what mated and amazd’ To heare the king thus threaten like himſelfe? Coſ[roe]. Ah Menaphon, I paſſe not for his threates, […]c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene i:
As for these silken-coated slaves, I pass not.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
EducationAbbreviation, Initialism Initialism of positive alternative to school suspension.
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Abbreviation, Initialism Initialism of penile artery shunt syndrome.
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Abbreviation, Initialism Initialism of personal alert safety system.
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Initialism, Mnemonic Used to remember how to use a fire extinguisher: pull the pin, aim at the base (of the fire), squeeze the handle/trigger, sweep from side to side.
pass
noun
Etymology From Middle English pas, pase, pace, from passen (“to pass”).
An opening, road, or track, available for passing; especially, one through or over some dangerous or otherwise impracticable barrier such as a mountain range; a passageway; a defile; a ford.
mountain pass
"Try not the Pass!" the old man said; / "Dark lowers the tempest overhead, / The roaring torrent is deep and wide!" / And loud that clarion voice replied / Excelsior!1841 September 28 (date written), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “[Miscellaneous.] Excelsior.”, in Ballads and Other Poems, 2nd edition, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, published 1842, →OCLC, stanza 4, page 130:
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Followed two more weeks of marching,—rougher marching this time,—through the core of the lofty mountains that divide India from Central Asia; across the terrible Depsang Plains, seventeen thousand feet up; and over four passes choked with snow; till they came upon a deserted fort, set in the midst of stark space, and knew that here, indeed, was the limit of human habitation. Next day the work of exploration had begun in earnest.1910, Maud Diver, “The Valley of Decision”, in The Great Amulet, New York: John Lane Company, →OCLC, page 368:
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A channel connecting a river or body of water to the sea, for example at the mouth (delta) of a river.
the passes of the Mississippi
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A single movement, especially of a hand, at, over, or along anything.
[The bear] made a pass at the dog, but he swung out and above him […]1921, John Griffin, "Trailing the Grizzly in Oregon", in Forest and Stream, pages 389-391 and 421-424, republished by Jeanette Prodgers in 1997 in The Only Good Bear is a Dead Bear, page 35
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A single passage of a tool over something, or of something over a tool.
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An attempt.
My first pass at a career of writing proved unsuccessful.
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A sexual advance (often in the phrase make a pass).
The man kicked his friend out of the house after he made a pass at his wife.
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Success in an examination or similar test.
I gained three passes at A-level, in mathematics, French, and English literature.
Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports The act of moving the ball or puck from one player to another.
Everyone in the football stadium expected a pass play on third down.
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Rail transport, Railways, Transport A passing of two trains in the same direction on a single track, when one is put into a siding to let the other overtake it.
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Permission or license to pass, or to go and come.
A ship sailing under the flag and pass of an enemy.1826, James Kent, Commentaries on American Law:
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A document granting permission to pass or to go and come; a passport; a ticket permitting free transit or admission
Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports The act of overtaking; an overtaking manoeuvre.
Albon made hard work of the result. Starting fourth, he dropped back to seventh at the second start and had to fight his way back up, which he did with some excellent passes.2020 September 13, Andrew Benson, “Tuscan Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton claims 90th win after incredible race”, in BBC Sport:
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The state of things; condition; predicament; impasse.
England is growne to ſuch a paſſe of late, That rich men triumph to ſee the poore beg at their gate.1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], →OCLC, Act I:
What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:
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Matters have been brought to this pass, that, if one among a man's sons had any blemish, he laid him aside for the ministry...1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:
"What with Robert strolling out with publicans' daughters, and you having affairs with bicycle-shop keepers, the family is coming to a pretty pass."1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 187:
This passes, Master Ford.c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene v]:
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Cooking, Food, Lifestyle The area in a restaurant kitchen where the finished dishes are passed from the chefs to the waiting staff.
The finished dishes are placed on the pass ready to be collected by the waiter.2017, Fred Sirieix, Secret Service: Lifting the lid on the restaurant world:
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An act of declining to play one's turn in a game, often by saying the word "pass".
A pass would have seen her win the game, but instead she gave a wrong answer and lost a point, putting her in second place.
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Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A run through a document as part of a translation, compilation or reformatting process.
Most Pascal compilers process source code in a single pass.
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, SciencesSlang A password (especially one for a restricted-access website).
Anyone want to trade passes?
If you don't have your password set within a week I'll remove you from the userlist and I'll add you again next time I see you in the chan and make sure you set a pass.1999, Jonny Durango, “IMPORTANT NEWS FOR AHM IRC CHAN!!!”, in alt.hackers.malicious (Usenet):