pass

• 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...
• 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...

Synonyms: gap notch

• the passes of the Mississippi

• [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...

Synonyms: transit

• My first pass at a career of writing proved unsuccessful.

1. 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.

   Synonyms: proposition come-on

• I gained three passes at A-level, in mathematics, French, and English literature.

Synonyms: thrust

• Everyone in the football stadium expected a pass play on third down.

Antonyms: meet

• A ship sailing under the flag and pass of an enemy. - 1826, James Kent, Commentaries on American Law:

Synonyms: access admission entry

• a railroad pass; a theater pass; a military pass

• 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...

• They passed from room to room.

Synonyms: go move

1. (intransitive) To move or be moved from one place to another.

2. (transitive) 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...
   • 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...

   Synonyms: overtake pass by pass over

3. (ditransitive) 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.
   • The torch was passed from hand to hand.

   Synonyms: deliver give hand make over send transfer transmit

4. (intransitive, transitive, medicine) 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.

   Synonyms: evacuate void

5. (transitive, nautical) To take a turn with (a line, gasket, etc.), as around a sail in furling, and make secure.

6. (sports) To make various kinds of movement.

   (transitive, soccer) 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.

7. (sports) To make various kinds of movement.

   (transitive) 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:

8. (sports) To make various kinds of movement.

   (intransitive, fencing) To make a lunge or swipe.

   Synonyms: thrust

9. (sports) To make various kinds of movement.

   (intransitive, American football) To throw the ball, generally downfield, towards a teammate.

   • The Patriots passed on third and long.

10. (intransitive) To go from one person to another.

11. (transitive) To put in circulation; to give currency to.

    • pass counterfeit money

    Synonyms: circulate pass around

12. (transitive) To cause to obtain entrance, admission, or conveyance.

    • pass a person into a theater or over a railroad

    Synonyms: admit let in let past

13. (transitive, cooking) To put through a sieve.

    • When it's finished cooking, you should pass the sauce to get rid of any lumps.

• He passed from youth into old age.

1. (intransitive) To progress from one state to another; to advance.

2. (intransitive) 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:
   • 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,...

3. (intransitive, euphemistic) To die.

   • His grandmother passed yesterday.

   Synonyms: pass away pass on pass over assume room temperature auger in be called home be gathered to one's fathers be like the the One be no more be with Jesus be with the Lord bite the big one bite the biscuit bite the dust buy the farm buy it cark it cash in cash in one's chips check out close one's eyes for the last time code conk out croak

4. (intransitive, transitive) To achieve a successful outcome from.

   • He attempted the examination, but did not expect to pass.
   • Of the Ancient Wonders, only the pyramids have passed the test of time.

5. (intransitive, transitive) 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.
   • The bill passed the Senate, but did not pass in the House.

   Synonyms: be accepted by

6. (intransitive, 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.

7. (transitive) 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:

   Synonyms: approve enact ratify

8. (intransitive, 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:

9. (transitive) 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 conduct - 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter XII, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to...
   • 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...

   Synonyms: pronounce say speak utter

10. (intransitive) 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...
    • 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...
    • 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....

• Their vacation passed pleasantly.

Synonyms: elapse go by go intervene go past pass pass by roll on

1. (intransitive, of time) To elapse, to be spent.

2. (transitive, of time) To spend.

   • What will we do to pass the time?
   • To pass commodiously this life. - 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost:
   • 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...

3. (transitive) 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...
   • 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:

   Synonyms: disregard ignore take no notice of brush off discount dissemble despise misheed misregard neglect pass pass by pay no heed put aside set at nought shrug off slough tune out unheed unmind

4. (intransitive) To continue.

   Synonyms: continue go on

5. (intransitive) To proceed without hindrance or opposition.

   • You're late, but I'll let it pass.

6. (transitive) 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...

   Synonyms: bear endure suffer tolerate undergo abear abide aby accept allow bide brook dree forbear go along with live with pass pocket pouch put up with stand stick stomach swallow

7. (intransitive) 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

   Synonyms: happen occur bechance befall belimp betide betime chance come about come to pass crop up evene eventuate go on hap hold pass take place tide transpire

• It isn't ideal, but it will pass.

1. (intransitive, stative) To be tolerated as a substitute for something else, to "do".

2. (intransitive, stative, sociology) 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...
   • 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...

   Coordinate Terms: roleplay

• He asked me to go to the cinema with him, but I think I'll pass.

Coordinate Terms: pass on pass up

1. (intransitive) To decline something that is offered or available.

2. (transitive) 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,...

3. (intransitive) To decline or not attempt to answer a question.

   • I haven't any idea of the answer, so I'll have to pass.

4. (intransitive) In turn-based games, to decline to play in one's turn.

5. (intransitive, card games) In euchre, to decline to make the trump.

• 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...

Synonyms: exceed surpass

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To go beyond bounds; to surpass; to be in excess.

2. (transitive) 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...

   Synonyms: better exceed excel outdo surpass transcend bear away the bell best overtake dwarf eclipse hold the cards outclass outmatch overbear outperform outrival outrun outshadow outshine outstrip outvie overmatch overshadow

• 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],...
• 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),...

Synonyms: take heed take notice attend clock consider give heed heed let in on mark mind notice pass pay attention pay heed pick up what someone is putting down privy regard take note