pass
Forms
- present (v1)
- pass
- past (v2)
- passed
- past participle (v3)
- passed
- present participle
- passing
- 3rd person singular
- passes
- Plural
- passes
Definitions
1.To change place.
- They passed from room to room.
- You will pass a house on your right.
- The waiter passed biscuits and cheese.
2.To change in state or status
- He passed from youth into old age.
- The bill passed both houses of Congress.
- He passed the bill through the committee.
3.To move through time.
- What will we do to pass the time?
- You're late, but I'll let it pass.
- Please you that I may pass / This doing.
4.To be accepted.
- It isn't ideal, but it will pass.
- Chinese sometimes pass for Europeans, but Japs more often approach Western types.
- 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).
1.A channel connecting a river or body of water to the sea, for example at the mouth (delta) of a river.
2.A single movement, especially of a hand, at, over, or along anything.
3.A single passage of a tool over something, or of something over a tool.
4.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.
- "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!
Frequency
Overall
Very common· #472
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Common
- General reading & writing
- Very common
- Academic
- Uncommon
- Literature
- Common
Related words
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.