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pass definition

Overview

This page has 96 definitions of pass with English translations in 7 languages. Pass is a verb, noun, an adverb and interjection. Examples of how to use pass in a sentence are shown. Also define these 0 related words and terms: .

See also: Pass, PASS, Paß, and pass.

English pass definition

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

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 pandere (“spread, unfold, stretch”), from Proto-Italic *patnō, from Proto-Indo-European *pth₂noh₂, from Proto-Indo-European *peth₂- (“to spread, stretch out”). Cognate with Old English fæþm (“armful, fathom”). More at fathom.

Alternative forms

Verb

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

  1. To change place.
    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.
      Synonyms: overtake, pass by, pass over
      You will pass a house on your right.
      • 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:
        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.
    4. (ditransitive) To cause to move or go; to send; to transfer from one person, place, or condition to another.
      Synonyms: deliver, give, hand, make over, send, transfer, transmit
      The waiter passed biscuits and cheese.
      John passed Suzie a note.
      The torch was passed from hand to hand.
    5. (intransitive, transitive, medicine) To eliminate (something) from the body by natural processes.
      Synonyms: evacuate, void
      He was passing blood in both his urine and his stool.
      The poison had been passed by the time of the autopsy.
    6. (transitive, nautical) To take a turn with (a line, gasket, etc.), as around a sail in furling, and make secure.
    7. (sports) To make various kinds of movement.
      1. (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.
      3. (transitive) To move (the ball or puck) to a teammate.
        • 2017 September 18, Nicole Yang, “What you need to know about the Patriots’ big win — and their next opponent”, in Boston Globe‎[1]:
          Brady passed the ball to nine different receivers and handed it off to seven.
      4. (intransitive, fencing) To make a lunge or swipe.
        Synonym: thrust
      5. (intransitive, American football) To throw the ball, generally downfield, towards a teammate.
        The Patriots passed on third and long.
    8. (intransitive) To go from one person to another.
    9. (transitive) To put in circulation; to give currency to.
      Synonyms: circulate, pass around
      pass counterfeit money
    10. (transitive) To cause to obtain entrance, admission, or conveyance.
      Synonyms: admit, let in, let past
      pass a person into a theater or over a railroad
    11. (transitive, cooking) To put through a sieve.
      When it's finished cooking, you should pass the sauce to get rid of any lumps.
  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.
      • 1697, Virgil, “Pastoral 2”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
        Beauty's a charm, but soon the charm will pass.
      • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →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.
      • 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.
      Synonyms: pass away, pass on, pass over; see also Thesaurus:die
      His grandmother passed yesterday.
    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).
      Synonym: be accepted by
      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.
    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.
      Synonyms: approve, enact, ratify
      He passed the bill through the committee.
    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 Borràs, The Ethics of Husserl's Phenomenology, →ISBN, 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, 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.
      Synonyms: elapse, go by; see also Thesaurus:elapse
      Their vacation passed pleasantly.
    2. (transitive, of time) To spend.
      What will we do to pass the time?
      • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost:
        To pass commodiously this life.
      • 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:
        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[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
        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.
      Synonyms: disregard, ignore, take no notice of; see also Thesaurus:ignore
    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.
      Synonyms: bear, endure, suffer, tolerate, undergo; see also Thesaurus:tolerate
    7. (intransitive) To happen.
      Synonyms: happen, occur; see also Thesaurus: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.
  4. To be accepted.
    1. (intransitive, stative) To be tolerated as a substitute for something else, to "do".
      It isn't ideal, but it will pass.
    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.
      • 1941 December 22, “How to Tell Japs from the Chinese”, in LIFE, page 81:
        Chinese sometimes pass for Europeans, but Japs more often approach Western types.
      • 1999, Irene Preiss, Fixed for Life: The True Saga of How Tom Became Sally, page 249:
        […] 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.
      • 2010 December, Nikki Khanna, Cathryn Johnson, “Passing as Black: Racial Identity Work among Biracial Americans”, in Social Psychology Quarterly, volume 73, number 4, →DOI:
        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).
  5. To refrain from doing something.
    1. (intransitive) To decline something that is offered or available.
      Coordinate terms: pass on, pass up
      He asked me to go to the cinema with him, but I think I'll pass.
    2. (transitive) To reject; to pass up.
      • 2013, Joshua D. Wolff, Western Union and the Creation of the American Corporate Order, 1845-1893, page 187:
        Instead, the board voted to suspend the dividend, giving Orton his way at last. They passed the dividend again in June 1870 […]
    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.
  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.
      Synonyms: better, exceed, excel, outdo, surpass, transcend; see also Thesaurus:exceed
  7. (intransitive, obsolete) To take heed, to have an interest, to care.
    Synonyms: take heed, take notice; see also Thesaurus:pay attention
Derived terms
Terms derived from pass (verb)
Translations
medicine: to eliminate (something) from the body by natural processes; to go through the intestines
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Dictionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also

Etymology 2

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

Noun

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.
    Synonyms: gap, notch
    mountain pass
    • 1841 September 28, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “[Miscellaneous.] Excelsior.”, in Ballads and Other Poems, 2nd edition, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, published 1842, →OCLC, stanza 4, page 130:
      "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!
  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.
    Synonym: transit
  5. An attempt.
    My first pass at a career of writing proved unsuccessful.
  7. Success in an examination or similar test.
    I gained three passes at A-level, in mathematics, French, and English literature.
  8. (fencing) A thrust or push; an attempt to stab or strike an adversary.
    Synonym: thrust
  9. (figuratively) A thrust; a sally of wit.
  10. A sexual advance.
    Synonyms: proposition, come on, hit on
    The man kicked his friend out of the house after he made a pass at his wife.
  11. (sports) The act of moving the ball or puck from one player to another.
  12. (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.
    Antonym: meet
  13. Permission or license to pass, or to go and come.
    Synonyms: access, admission, entry
  15. 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
  16. (baseball) An intentional walk.
    Smith was given a pass after Jones' double.
  17. (sports) The act of overtaking; an overtaking manoeuvre.
    • 2020 September 13, Andrew Benson, “Tuscan Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton claims 90th win after incredible race”, in BBC Sport‎[2]:
      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.
  18. The state of things; condition; predicament; impasse.
    • 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act I:
      England is growne to ſuch a paſſe of late,
      That rich men triumph to ſee the poore beg at their gate.
    • 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]:
      What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?
    • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727, →OCLC:
      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...
    • 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, →OCLC, page 187:
      "What with Robert strolling out with publicans' daughters, and you having affairs with bicycle-shop keepers, the family is coming to a pretty pass."
    Synonyms: condition, predicament, state
  19. (obsolete) Estimation; character.
  20. (cooking) The area in a restaurant kitchen where the finished dishes are passed from the chefs to the waiting staff.
    • 2017, Fred Sirieix, Secret Service: Lifting the lid on the restaurant world:
      The finished dishes are placed on the pass ready to be collected by the waiter.
  21. 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.
  22. (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
Terms derived from pass (noun)
Descendants
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Dictionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Etymology 3

Short for password.

Noun

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!!!”, in alt.hackers.malicious (Usenet):
      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
password — see password

Further reading

See also

Anagrams

Chinese pass definition

Etymology 1

From English pass (noun).

Pronunciation

Noun

pass

  1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) pass (document granting permission to pass)
    有呢張pass先上得車。 [Cantonese, trad.]
    有呢张pass先上得车。 [Cantonese, simp.]
    jau5 ni1 zoeng1 pass sin1 soeng5 dak1 ce1. [Jyutping]
    You can only ride the vehicle if you have this pass.

Etymology 2

From English pass (verb).

Pronunciation

Verb

pass

  1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) to pass; to transfer
    Pass個波過嚟。／Pass个波过嚟。 [Cantonese]  ―  Pass go3 bo1 gwo3 lai4. [Jyutping]  ―  Pass the ball over here!
    將個波pass畀對家。 [Cantonese, trad.]
    将个波pass畀对家。 [Cantonese, simp.]
    zoeng1 go3 bo1 pass bei2 deoi3 gaa1. [Jyutping]
    Pass on the responsibility to the other side.
  2. (Hong Kong Cantonese) to pass; to achieve a certain benchmark or acceptance level
    今個學期我全部科都pass嗮。 [Cantonese, trad.]
    今个学期我全部科都pass嗮。 [Cantonese, simp.]
    gam1 go3 hok6 kei4 ngo5 cyun4 bou6 fo1 dou1 pass saai3. [Jyutping]
    I passed all the subjects this semester.
    件貨pass唔pass？／件货pass唔pass？ [Cantonese]  ―  gin6 fo3 pass m4 pass? [Jyutping]  ―  Does the product meet the requirements?
  3. (Hong Kong Cantonese) to pass; to decline in one's turn
    今鋪我pass，唔玩。／今铺我pass，唔玩。 [Cantonese]  ―  gam1 pou1 ngo5 pass, m4 waan4-2. [Jyutping]  ―  I'm passing and not playing this round.

Faroese pass definition

Etymology

From German Pass, from Italian passaporto.

Pronunciation

Noun

pass n (genitive singular pass, plural pass)

  1. passport

Declension

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 pass definition

Pronunciation

Verb

pass

  1. singular imperative of passen

Lombard pass definition

Etymology

From Latin passus.

Pronunciation

Noun

pass ?

  1. step
  2. mountain pass

Norwegian Bokmål pass definition

Noun

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

Verb

pass

  1. imperative of passe

References

Norwegian Nynorsk pass definition

Noun

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

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

Derived terms

References

Swedish pass definition

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From German, originally from Italian passo.

Noun

pass n

  1. passport (document granting permission to pass)
  2. place which you (must) pass or is passing; mountain pass
  3. pace; a kind of gait
  4. place where a hunter hunts; place where a policeman patrols
  5. a shift (of work)
  6. an (exercise) session
    ett träningspass
    an exercise session / workout
    ett löppass
    a running session / run
  7. a leave notice (document granting permission to leave) (from prison)
Declension
Declension of pass 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative pass passet pass passen
Genitive pass passets pass passens
Synonyms
  • leave notice: permissionssedel, permissionspass
Derived terms
terms derived from pass (document)
  • främlingspass
  • passfoto
  • passkontroll
  • respass
terms derived from pass
  • bergpass
  • bergspass
  • passera
  • passgång
  • passlöp
  • passtakt
  • passtaktig
  • stilpass
terms derived from pass (gait)
  • passgång
  • passgångare
terms derived from pass (hunting place)
  • harpass
  • rävpass
terms derived from pass (spell)
  • arbetspass
  • eftermiddagspass
  • förmiddagspass
  • kvällspass
  • fyrpass
  • rundpass
  • sexpass

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Adverb

pass (not comparable)

  1. (in "hur pass") (to what) degree
    Hur pass noggrant är testet?
    How accurate is the test? (Roughly, "To what degree is the test accurate?")
  2. (in "så pass") (to such a) degree (see såpass)
Usage notes

Often strictly redundant compared to just hur or så.

See also

Etymology 3

From English pass.

Noun

pass c

  1. (ball sports) pass; a transfer of the ball from one player to another in the same team
    Synonym: passning
Declension
Declension of pass 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative pass passen passar passarna
Genitive pass passens passars passarnas
Derived terms
terms derived from pass
  • bakåtpass
  • framåtpass
  • passa

Etymology 4

Borrowed from French passe, from passer.

Interjection

pass

  1. (games) pass (I refuse to bet or bid or play)

References

Anagrams

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