passing

passing
    adv 1: to an extreme degree; "extremely cold"; "extremely
           unpleasant" [syn: {extremely}, {exceedingly}, {super},
           {passing}]
    adj 1: lasting a very short time; "the ephemeral joys of
           childhood"; "a passing fancy"; "youth's transient
           beauty"; "love is transitory but it is eternal";
           "fugacious blossoms" [syn: {ephemeral}, {passing},
           {short-lived}, {transient}, {transitory}, {fugacious}]
    2: of advancing the ball by throwing it; "a team with a good
       passing attack"; "a pass play" [syn: {passing(a)}, {pass(a)}]
       [ant: {running(a)}]
    3: allowing you to pass (e.g., an examination or inspection)
       satisfactorily; "a passing grade"
    4: hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough; "a
       casual (or cursory) inspection failed to reveal the house's
       structural flaws"; "a passing glance"; "perfunctory courtesy"
       [syn: {casual}, {cursory}, {passing(a)}, {perfunctory}]
    n 1: (American football) a play that involves one player
         throwing the ball to a teammate; "the coach sent in a
         passing play on third and long" [syn: {pass}, {passing
         play}, {passing game}, {passing}]
    2: euphemistic expressions for death; "thousands mourned his
       passing" [syn: {passing}, {loss}, {departure}, {exit},
       {expiration}, {going}, {release}]
    3: the motion of one object relative to another; "stellar
       passings can perturb the orbits of comets" [syn: {passing},
       {passage}]
    4: the end of something; "the passing of winter"
    5: a bodily reaction of changing from one place or stage to
       another; "the passage of air from the lungs"; "the passing of
       flatus" [syn: {passage}, {passing}]
    6: going by something that is moving in order to get in front of
       it; "she drove but well but her reckless passing of every car
       on the road frightened me" [syn: {passing}, {overtaking}]
    7: success in satisfying a test or requirement; "his future
       depended on his passing that test"; "he got a pass in
       introductory chemistry" [syn: {passing}, {pass},
       {qualifying}] [ant: {failing}, {flunk}]
    

Pass \Pass\ (p[.a]s, p[a^]s), v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Passed}; p.
   pr. & vb. n. {Passing}.] [F. passer, LL. passare, fr. L.
   passus step, or from pandere, passum, to spread out, lay
   open. See {Pace}.]
   1. To go; to move; to proceed; to be moved or transferred
      from one point to another; to make a transit; -- usually
      with a following adverb or adverbal phrase defining the
      kind or manner of motion; as, to pass on, by, out, in,
      etc.; to pass swiftly, directly, smoothly, etc.; to pass
      to the rear, under the yoke, over the bridge, across the
      field, beyond the border, etc. "But now pass over [i. e.,
      pass on]." --Chaucer.
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            On high behests his angels to and fro
            Passed frequent.                      --Milton.
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            Sweet sounds rose slowly through their mouths,
            And from their bodies passed.         --Coleridge.
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   2. To move or be transferred from one state or condition to
      another; to change possession, condition, or
      circumstances; to undergo transition; as, the business has
      passed into other hands.
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            Others, dissatisfied with what they have, . . . pass
            from just to unjust.                  --Sir W.
                                                  Temple.
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   3. To move beyond the range of the senses or of knowledge; to
      pass away; hence, to disappear; to vanish; to depart;
      specifically, to depart from life; to die.
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            Disturb him not, let him pass paceably. --Shak.
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            Beauty is a charm, but soon the charm will pass.
                                                  --Dryden.
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            The passing of the sweetest soul
            That ever looked with human eyes.     --Tennyson.
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   4. To move or to come into being or under notice; to come and
      go in consciousness; hence, to take place; to occur; to
      happen; to come; to occur progressively or in succession;
      to be present transitorily.
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            So death passed upon all men.         --Rom. v. 12.
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            Our own consciousness of what passes within our own
            mind.                                 --I. Watts.
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   5. To go by or glide by, as time; to elapse; to be spent; as,
      their vacation passed pleasantly.
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            Now the time is far passed.           --Mark vi. 35
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   6. To go from one person to another; hence, to be given and
      taken freely; as, clipped coin will not pass; to obtain
      general acceptance; to be held or regarded; to circulate;
      to be current; -- followed by for before a word denoting
      value or estimation. "Let him pass for a man." --Shak.
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            False eloquence passeth only where true is not
            understood.                           --Felton.
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            This will not pass for a fault in him. --Atterbury.
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   7. To advance through all the steps or stages necessary to
      validity or effectiveness; to be carried through a body
      that has power to sanction or reject; to receive
      legislative sanction; to be enacted; as, the resolution
      passed; the bill passed both houses of Congress.
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   8. To go through any inspection or test successfully; to be
      approved or accepted; as, he attempted the examination,
      but did not expect to pass.
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   9. To be suffered to go on; to be tolerated; hence, to
      continue; to live along. "The play may pass." --Shak.
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   10. To go unheeded or neglected; to proceed without hindrance
       or opposition; as, we let this act pass.
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   11. To go beyond bounds; to surpass; to be in excess. [Obs.]
       "This passes, Master Ford." --Shak.
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   12. To take heed; to care. [Obs.]
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             As for these silken-coated slaves, I pass not.
                                                  --Shak.
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   13. To go through the intestines. --Arbuthnot.
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   14. (Law) To be conveyed or transferred by will, deed, or
       other instrument of conveyance; as, an estate passes by a
       certain clause in a deed. --Mozley & W.
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   15. (Fencing) To make a lunge or pass; to thrust.
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   16. (Card Playing) To decline to play in one's turn; in
       euchre, to decline to make the trump.
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             She would not play, yet must not pass. --Prior.
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   {To bring to pass}, {To come to pass}. See under {Bring}, and
      {Come}.

   {To pass away}, to disappear; to die; to vanish. "The heavens
      shall pass away." --2 Pet. iii. 10. "I thought to pass
      away before, but yet alive I am." --Tennyson.

   {To pass by}, to go near and beyond a certain person or
      place; as, he passed by as we stood there.

   {To pass into}, to change by a gradual transmission; to blend
      or unite with.

   {To pass on}, to proceed.

   {To pass on} or {To pass upon}.
       (a) To happen to; to come upon; to affect. "So death
           passed upon all men." --Rom. v. 12. "Provided no
           indirect act pass upon our prayers to define them."
           --Jer. Taylor.
       (b) To determine concerning; to give judgment or sentence
           upon. "We may not pass upon his life." --Shak.

   {To pass off}, to go away; to cease; to disappear; as, an
      agitation passes off.

   {To pass over}, to go from one side or end to the other; to
      cross, as a river, road, or bridge.
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Passing \Pass"ing\, n.
   The act of one who, or that which, passes; the act of going
   by or away.
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   {Passing bell}, a tolling of a bell to announce that a soul
      is passing, or has passed, from its body (formerly done to
      invoke prayers for the dying); also, a tolling during the
      passing of a funeral procession to the grave, or during
      funeral ceremonies. --Sir W. Scott. --Longfellow.
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Passing \Pass"ing\, a.
   1. Relating to the act of passing or going; going by, beyond,
      through, or away; departing.
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   2. Exceeding; surpassing, eminent. --Chaucer. "Her passing
      deformity." --Shak.
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   {Passing note} (Mus.), a character including a passing tone.
      

   {Passing tone} (Mus.), a tone introduced between two other
      tones, on an unaccented portion of a measure, for the sake
      of smoother melody, but forming no essential part of the
      harmony.
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Passing \Pass"ing\, adv.
   Exceedingly; excessively; surpassingly; as, passing fair;
   passing strange. "You apprehend passing shrewdly." --Shak.
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280 Moby Thesaurus words for "passing":
      abandonment, abrupt, accidental, accompanying, act, ado, advance,
      advancement, afloat, afoot, aggrandizement, ambulant, ambulative,
      ambulatory, annihilation, ascending, axial, back, back-flowing,
      backward, bane, biological death, blackout, blocking, boost, brief,
      brittle, by the by, by the way, capricious, casual,
      cessation of life, changeable, circuit-riding, circumstantial,
      clinical death, concurrent resolution, constitution, corruptible,
      crossing the bar, current, cursory, curtains, death, death knell,
      debt of nature, decampment, decease, deciduous, dematerialization,
      demise, departure, descending, disappearance, disappearing,
      dismissive, dispersion, dissipation, dissolution, dissolving,
      doing, doom, down-trending, downward, drifting, dying, ebb of life,
      eclipse, egress, elevation, elimination, en passant, enaction,
      enactment, end, end of life, ending, ennoblement, ephemeral,
      erasure, escape, eternal rest, evacuation, evanescence, evanescent,
      evaporating, evaporation, eventuating, exaltation, exit, exodus,
      expeditionary, expeditious, expiration, expiring, expiry,
      extinction, extinguishment, fadeaway, fadeout, fading, festinate,
      feverish, fickle, final summons, finger of death, fleeting, flight,
      flitting, flowing, fluent, fly-by-night, flying, fragile, frail,
      fugacious, fugitive, furious, getaway, glancing, globe-girdling,
      globe-trotting, going, going off, going on, graduation, grave,
      gyrational, gyratory, hand of death, happening, hasty, hegira,
      hurried, immediate, impermanent, impetuous, impulsive, in hand,
      in passing, in the wind, incidental, incidentally, inconstant,
      instant, insubstantial, itinerant, itinerary, jaws of death,
      joint resolution, journeying, knell, knighting, last debt,
      last muster, last rest, last roundup, last sleep, last-minute,
      lawmaking, leaving, leaving life, legislation, legislature,
      locomotive, loss, loss of life, making an end, melting, momentary,
      mortal, mounting, moving, mundivagant, mutable, nondurable,
      nonpermanent, occasional, occultation, occurring, on, on foot,
      on the spot, on tour, ongoing, parenthetically, parting, passage,
      passing away, passing over, pay raise, pedestrian, perambulating,
      perambulatory, peregrinative, peregrine, peripatetic, perishable,
      perishing, pilgrimlike, plunging, preferment, prevailing,
      prevalent, progressing, progressive, promotion, prompt, quick,
      quietus, raise, reflowing, refluent, regressive, release, removal,
      resolution, rest, resultant, retirement, retreat, retrogressive,
      reward, rise, rising, rotary, rotational, rotatory, running,
      rushing, sentence of death, shades of death, shadow of death,
      short-lived, sideward, silence, sinking, slap-bang, slapdash,
      sleep, slipping away, snap, soaring, somatic death, speedy,
      streaming, strolling, summary, summons of death, superficial,
      swift, taking place, temporal, temporary, touring, touristic,
      touristy, transient, transitional, transitive, transitory,
      traveling, trekking, under way, undurable, unenduring, unstable,
      up-trending, upgrading, upping, upward, urgent, vanishing,
      vanishing point, volatile, walking, walkout, wayfaring, wipe,
      withdrawal