English
pass
see also: Pass, PASS
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /pɑːs/
    • (RP, South Africa) IPA: [pʰɑːs]
    • (Australia, New Zealand) IPA: [pʰäːs], [pʰɐːs]
    • (Boston) IPA: [pʰaːs]
  • IPA: /pæs/
    • (America, Canada) IPA: [pʰæs], [pʰɛəs], [pʰeəs]
    • (Ireland, Northern England) IPA: [pʰas], [pʰæs]
    • (Scotland) IPA: [pʰäs]
    • (New York City) IPA: [pʰeə̯s]
Etymology 1

From Middle English passen, from Old French passer, from Vulgar Latin *passo, derived from Latin passus, from pandere, from itc-pro *patnō, from Proto-Indo-European *pth₂noh₂, from Proto-Indo-European *peth₂-.

Displaced native Old English gengan.

Verb

pass (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.
    3. (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.
      • 1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC ↗:
        I had only time to pass my eye over the medals.
      • 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 Theater, published 1707, →OCLC ↗:
        Waller […] passed over five thousand horse and foot by Newbridge.
    4. (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.
    5. (transitive, nautical) To take a turn with (a line, gasket, etc.), as around a sail in furling, and make secure.
    6. (sport) To make various kinds of movement.
      1. (transitive, football) 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.
      2. (transitive) To move (the ball or puck) to a teammate.
      3. (intransitive, fencing) To make a lunge or swipe.
        Synonyms: thrust
      4. (intransitive, American football) To throw the ball, generally downfield, towards a teammate.
        The Patriots passed on third and long.
    7. (intransitive) To go from one person to another.
    8. (transitive) To put in circulation; to give currency to.
      Synonyms: circulate, pass around
      pass counterfeit money
    9. (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
    10. (transitive, culinary) 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, 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).
      Synonyms: 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, legal) 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.
      • 1855, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page)”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC ↗:
        Pass the happy news.
    8. (intransitive, legal) 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
      • 1749, 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:
        I may almost depend on your own justice, and leave it to yourself to pass sentence on your own conduct
      • 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 ↗:
        Father, thy word is passed.
    10. (intransitive) To change from one state to another (without the implication of progression).
  3. To move through time.
    1. (intransitive, of time) To elapse, to be spent.
      Synonyms: elapse, go by, 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, Thesaurus:ignore
      • 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]:
        Please you that I may pass / This doing.
      • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight's Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC ↗:
        I pass their warlike pomp, their proud array.
    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, Thesaurus:tolerate
      • 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]:
        Please you that I may pass / This doing.
    7. (intransitive) To happen.
      Synonyms: happen, occur, 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.
      Coordinate term: roleplay (“act out a social role”)
  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.
      • 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]:
        This passes, Master Ford.
      Synonyms: exceed, surpass
    2. (transitive) To transcend; to surpass; to excel; to exceed.
      Synonyms: better, exceed, excel, outdo, surpass, transcend, Thesaurus:exceed
      • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗, stanza 25:
        And striue to passe […] Their natiue musicke by her skilfull art:
      • 1812–1818, Lord Byron, “Canto C”, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. , London: John Murray,, (please specify the stanza number):
        Whose tender power Passes the strength of storms in their most desolate hour.
  7. (intransitive, obsolete) To take heed, to have an interest, to care.
    Synonyms: take heed, take notice, Thesaurus:pay attention
    • c. 1587–1588, [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 ↗:
      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, […]
    • 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]:
      As for these silken-coated slaves, I pass not.
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations 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.
    Synonyms: transit
  5. An attempt.
    My first pass at a career of writing proved unsuccessful.
  6. Success in an examination or similar test.
    I gained three passes at A-level, in mathematics, French, and English literature.
  7. (fencing) A thrust or push; an attempt to stab or strike an adversary.
    Synonyms: thrust
  8. (figuratively) A thrust; a sally of wit.
  9. 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.
  10. (sports) The act of moving the ball or puck from one player to another.
  11. (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
  12. Permission or license to pass, or to go and come.
    • 1826, James Kent, Commentaries on American Law:
      A ship sailing under the flag and pass of an enemy.
    Synonyms: access, admission, entry
  13. 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
  14. (baseball) An intentional walk.
    Smith was given a pass after Jones' double.
  15. (sports) The act of overtaking; an overtaking manoeuvre.
  16. 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, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:
      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
  17. (obsolete) Estimation; character.
    • 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]:
      This passes, Master Ford.
  18. (cookery) The area in a restaurant kitchen where the finished dishes are passed from the chefs to the waiting staff.
  19. 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.
  20. (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.
Translations Translations Translations Translations 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?
Pass
Etymology
  • As an English surname, from a pet form of the medieval name Passe, itself probably a pet form of Pascal.
  • As a German - surname, from the noun Pass.
  • As a Jewish surname, from Polish pas.
  • Also as an English surname, from Middle English passe, referring to passages.
Proper noun
  1. Surname.
PASS
Noun

pass

  1. (education) Initialism of positive alternative to school suspension


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