pass

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.

verb

1. To change place.
   1. (intransitive) To move or be moved from one place to another.
      They passed from room to room.
   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.
      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. 1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick
   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.
   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.
   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.
      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.
      2. (transitive) To move (the ball or puck) to a teammate.
         Brady passed the ball to nine different receivers and handed it off to seven. September 18, 2017, Nicole Yang, “What you need to know about the Patriots’ big win — and their next opponent”, in Boston Globe
      3. (intransitive, fencing) To make a lunge or swipe.
      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.
      pass counterfeit money
   9. (transitive) To cause to obtain entrance, admission, or conveyance.
      pass a person into a theater or over a railroad
   10. (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.
      The crisis passed as she'd prayed it would, but it remained to be seen just how much damage had been done. 1995, Penny Richards, The Greatest Gift of All
   3. (intransitive) To 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).
      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.
      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. 2012-03, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87
   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.
   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.
   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 the state of mind to which the infinity of though is along present. 1881, Buddhist Suttas, page 115
       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.' 2010, Joaquim Siles i Borràs, The Ethics of Husserl's Phenomenology, page 158
       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. Nettleship, Works of Thomas Hill Green, page lxxviii
3. To move through time.
   1. (intransitive, of time) To elapse, to be spent.
      Their vacation passed pleasantly.
   2. (transitive, of time) To spend.
      What will we do to pass the time?
      To pass commodiously this life. 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost
   3. (transitive) To go by without noticing; to omit attention to; to take no note of; to disregard.
   4. (intransitive) To continue.
   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.
   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
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.
      Chinese sometimes pass for Europeans, but Japs more often approach Western types. December 22 1941, “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 Sally, page 249
      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 Khanna, Cathryn Johnson, “Passing as Black: Racial Identity Work among Biracial Americans”, in Social Psychology Quarterly, volume 73, number 4, →DOI
5. To refrain from doing something.
   1. (intransitive) To decline something that is offered or available.
      He asked me to go to the cinema with him, but I think I'll pass.
   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, 1845-1893, page 187
   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.
   2. (transitive) To transcend; to surpass; to excel; to exceed.
7. (intransitive, obsolete) To take heed, to have an interest, to care.

Etymology 2

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

noun

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.
   mountain pass
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.
   [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 The Only Good Bear is a Dead Bear, page 35
4. A single passage of a tool over something, or of something over a tool.
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.
8. (figurative) A thrust; a sally of wit.
9. A sexual advance.
   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.
12. Permission or license to pass, or to go and come.
    A ship sailing under the flag and pass of an enemy. 1826, James Kent, Commentaries on American Law
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.
    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. 13 September 2020, Andrew Benson, “Tuscan Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton claims 90th win after incredible race”, in BBC Sport
16. The state of things; condition; predicament; impasse.
17. (obsolete) Estimation; character.
18. (cooking) The area in a restaurant kitchen where the finished dishes are passed from the chefs to the waiting staff.
    The finished dishes are placed on the pass ready to be collected by the waiter. 2017, Fred Sirieix, Secret Service: Lifting the lid on the restaurant world
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.

Etymology 3

Short for password.

noun

1. (computing, slang) A password (especially one for a restricted-access website).
   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 CHAN!!!”, in alt.hackers.malicious (Usenet)