pass

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See also: Pass, PASS, Paß, and pass.

English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English passen, from Old French passer (“to step, walk, pass”), from Vulgar Latin *passāre (“step, walk, pass”), from Latin passus (“a step”), pandere (“to spread, unfold, stretch”), from Proto-Indo-European *patno-, from Proto-Indo-European *pete- (“to spread, stretch out”). Cognate with Old English fæþm (“armful, fathom”). More at fathom.

Verb[edit]

pass (third-person singular simple present passes, present participle passing, simple past and past participle passed)

  1. Physical movement.
    1. (intransitive) To move or be moved from one place to another.
      They passed from room to room.
      Synonyms: go, move
    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.
      • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity:
        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.
      • 1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick:
        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.
      Synonyms: overtake, pass by, pass over
    3. (transitive) To cause to move or go; to send; to transfer from one person, place, or condition to another; to transmit; to deliver; to hand; to make over.
      The waiter passed biscuits and cheese.
      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 kick (the ball) with precision rather than at full force.
      1. (transitive, soccer) To kick (the ball) with precision rather than at full force.
        • The Guardian, Rob Smyth, 20 June 2010
          Iaquinta passes it coolly into the right-hand corner as Paston dives the other way.
      2. (transitive) To move (the ball or puck) to a teammate.
      3. (intransitive, fencing) To make a lunge or swipe.
        Synonyms: thrust
    7. (intransitive) To go from one person to another.
    8. (transitive) To put in circulation; to give currency to.
      pass counterfeit money
      Synonyms: circulate, pass around
    9. (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
  2. To change in state or status
    1. (intransitive) To progress from one state to another; to advance.
      He passed from youth into old age.
    2. (intransitive) To depart, to cease, to come to an end.
      At first, she was worried, but that feeling soon passed.
      • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden (1631-1700)
        Beauty is a charm, but soon the charm will pass.
      • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 23, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
        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.
      • 1995, Penny Richards, The Greatest Gift of All:
        The crisis passed as she'd prayed it would, but it remained to be seen just how much damage had been done.
    3. (intransitive) To die.
      His grandmother passed yesterday.
      Synonyms: pass away, pass on, pass over
    4. (intransitive, transitive) To achieve a successful outcome from.
      He passed his examination.
      He attempted the examination, but did not expect to pass.
    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.
      • 2012 March 1, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87:
        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.
      Synonyms: be accepted by, be passed 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.
      Synonyms: approve, enact, ratify
    8. (intransitive, law) To make a judgment on or upon a person or case.
      • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X:
        And within three dayes twelve knyghtes passed uppon hem; and they founde Sir Palomydes gylty, and Sir Saphir nat gylty, of the lordis deth.
    9. (transitive) To utter; to pronounce; to pledge.
      Synonyms: pronounce, say, speak, utter
    10. (intransitive) To change from one state to another (without the implication of progression).
      • 1881, Buddhist Suttas, page 115:
        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.
      • 2010, Joaquim Siles i BorrÁ s, The Ethics of Husserl's Phenomenology, ISBN 1441114009, page 158:
        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.'
      • 2011, Thomas Hill Green (& R. L. Nettleship, Works of Thomas Hill Green, ISBN 1108036821, page lxxviii:
        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.
  3. To move through time.
    1. (intransitive, of time) To elapse, to be spent.
      Their vacation passed pleasantly.
      Synonyms: elapse, go by
    2. (transitive, of time) To spend.
      What will we do to pass the time?
      • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton (1608-1674)
        To pass commodiously this life.
      • 1915, Mrs. Belloc Lowndes, The Lodger, chapter I:
        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.
      • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 23, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
        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.
    3. (transitive) To go by without noticing; to omit attention to; to take no note of; to disregard.
      • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
        Please you that I may pass / This doing.
      • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden (1631-1700)
        I pass their warlike pomp, their proud array.
      Synonyms: disregard, ignore, take no notice of
    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.
      She loved me for the dangers I had passed.
      Synonyms: bear, endure, suffer, tolerate, undergo
    7. (intransitive) To happen.
      It will soon come to pass.
      • 1876, The Dilemma, Chapter LIII, republished in Littell's Living Age, series 5, volume 14, page 274:
        […] for the memory of what passed while at that place is almost blank.
      Synonyms: happen, occur
  4. To be accepted.
    1. (intransitive) To be tolerated as a substitute for something else, to "do".
      It isn't ideal, but it will pass.
    2. (sociology) To present oneself as, and therefore be accepted by society as, a member of a race, sex or other group to which society would not otherwise regard one as belonging; especially to live and be known as white although one has black ancestry, or to live and be known as female although one was born male (or vice versa).
      Some male-to-female transsexuals can pass as female.
  5. (intransitive) In any game, to decline to play in one's turn.
    1. (intransitive) In euchre, to decline to make the trump.
  6. To do or be better.
    1. (intransitive, obsolete) To go beyond bounds; to surpass; to be in excess.
      Synonyms: exceed, surpass
    2. (transitive) To transcend; to surpass; to excel; to exceed.
      • (Can we date this quote?) Edmund Spenser (c.1552–1599)
        And strive to pass […] Their native music by her skillful art.
      • (Can we date this quote?) George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)
        Whose tender power Passes the strength of storms in their most desolate hour.
      Synonyms: better, exceed, excel, outdo, surpass, transcend
  7. (intransitive, obsolete) To take heed.
    Synonyms: take heed, take notice
Synonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from pass (verb)
Translations[edit]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English pas, pase, pace, from passen (“to pass”).

Noun[edit]

pass (plural passes)

  1. 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.
    a mountain pass
    Synonyms: gap
  2. 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
  3. A single movement, especially of a hand, at, over, or along anything.
    • 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:
      [The bear] made a pass at the dog, but he swung out and above him [...]
  4. A single passage of a tool over something, or of something over a tool.
    Synonyms: transit
  5. An attempt.
    My pass at a career of writing proved unsuccessful.
  6. (fencing) A thrust or push; an attempt to stab or strike an adversary.
    Synonyms: thrust
  7. (figuratively) A thrust; a sally of wit.
  8. A sexual advance.
    The man kicked his friend out of the house after he made a pass at his wife.
  9. (sports) The act of moving the ball or puck from one player to another.
  10. (rail 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.
    Antonyms: meet
  11. Permission or license to pass, or to go and come.
    • (Can we date this quote?) James Kent:
      A ship sailing under the flag and pass of an enemy.
    Synonyms: access, admission, entry
  12. A document granting permission to pass or to go and come; a passport; a ticket permitting free transit or admission
    a railroad pass; a theater pass; a military pass
  13. (baseball) An intentional walk.
    Smith was given a pass after Jones' double.
  14. The state of things; condition; predicament; impasse.
    • 1606 Shakespeare:
      What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?
    • (Can we date this quote?) Robert South:
      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...
    Synonyms: condition, predicament, state
  15. (obsolete) Estimation; character.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare:
      Common speech gives him a worthy pass.
  16. (obsolete, Chaucer) A part, a division. Compare passus.
  17. (cooking) The area in a restaurant kitchen where the finished dishes are passed from the chefs to the waiting staff.
  18. 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.
  19. (computing) A run through a document as part of a translation, compilation or reformatting process.
    Most Pascal compilers process source code in a single pass.
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from pass (noun)
Translations[edit]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Etymology 3[edit]

Short for password.

Noun[edit]

pass (plural passes)

  1. (computing, slang) A password (especially one for a restricted-access website).
    Anyone want to trade passes?
    • 1999, "Jonny Durango", IMPORTANT NEWS FOR AHM IRC CHAN!!! (on newsgroup alt.hackers.malicious)
      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.
Translations[edit]
password — see password

Statistics[edit]

Most common English words before 1923 in Project Gutenberg: opened · purpose · fall · #545: pass · doing · note · pay

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Faroese[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

pass n (genitive singular pass, plural pass)

  1. passport

Declension[edit]

n11 Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative pass passið pass passini
Accusative pass passið pass passini
Dative passi passinum passum passunum
Genitive pass passins passa passanna

German[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

pass

  1. Imperative singular of passen.

Lombard[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin passus.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

pass ?

  1. step
  2. mountain pass

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no
Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no

Noun[edit]

pass n (definite singular passet, indefinite plural pass, definite plural passa or passene)

  1. a passport (travel document)
  2. a pass (fjellpass - mountain pass)

Derived terms[edit]

Verb[edit]

pass

  1. imperative of passe

References[edit]

Norwegian Nynorsk[edit]

Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nn
Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nn

Noun[edit]

pass n (definite singular passet, indefinite plural pass, definite plural passa)

  1. a passport (travel document)
  2. a pass (mountain pass)

Derived terms[edit]

References[edit]

Swedish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

EB1911 - Volume 01 - Page 001 - 1.svg This entry lacks etymological information. If you are familiar with the origin of this term, please add it to the page per etymology instructions. You can also discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.

From German, originally from Italian passo.

Noun[edit]

pass n

  1. passport (document granting permission to pass)
  2. place which you (must) pass or is passing; pass (between mountains)
  3. pace; a kind of gait
  4. place where a hunter hunts; place where a policeman patrols
  5. spell (a period of duty)
  6. leave notice (document granting permission to leave) (from prison)
Declension[edit]
Declension of pass 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative pass passet pass passen
Genitive pass passets pass passens
Derived terms[edit]
terms derived from pass (document)
terms derived from pass


terms derived from pass (gait)


terms derived from pass (hunting place)
terms derived from pass (spell)
Synonyms[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

EB1911 - Volume 01 - Page 001 - 1.svg This entry lacks etymological information. If you are familiar with the origin of this term, please add it to the page per etymology instructions. You can also discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.

Noun[edit]

pass c

  1. (ball sports) pass; a transfer of the ball from one player to another in the same team
Declension[edit]
Declension of pass 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative pass passen passar passarna
Genitive pass passens passars passarnas
Derived terms[edit]
terms derived from pass
Synonyms[edit]
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