passage

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
passage
    n 1: the act of passing from one state or place to the next
         [syn: {passage}, {transition}]
    2: a section of text; particularly a section of medium length
    3: a way through or along which someone or something may pass
    4: the passing of a law by a legislative body [syn: {enactment},
       {passage}]
    5: a journey usually by ship; "the outward passage took 10 days"
       [syn: {passage}, {transit}]
    6: a short section of a musical composition [syn: {passage},
       {musical passage}]
    7: a path or channel or duct through or along which something
       may pass; "the nasal passages" [syn: {passage}, {passageway}]
    8: 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}]
    9: the motion of one object relative to another; "stellar
       passings can perturb the orbits of comets" [syn: {passing},
       {passage}]
    10: the act of passing something to another person [syn:
        {passage}, {handing over}]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Passage \Pas"sage\, n. [F. passage. See {Pass}, v. i.]
   1. The act of passing; transit from one place to another;
      movement from point to point; a going by, over, across, or
      through; as, the passage of a man or a carriage; the
      passage of a ship or a bird; the passage of light; the
      passage of fluids through the pores or channels of the
      body.
      [1913 Webster]

            What! are my doors opposed against my passage!
                                                  --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Transit by means of conveyance; journey, as by water,
      carriage, car, or the like; travel; right, liberty, or
      means, of passing; conveyance.
      [1913 Webster]

            The ship in which he had taken passage. --Macaulay.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Price paid for the liberty to pass; fare; as, to pay one's
      passage.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. Removal from life; decease; departure; death. [R.] "Endure
      thy mortal passage." --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

            When he is fit and season'd for his passage. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. Way; road; path; channel or course through or by which one
      passes; way of exit or entrance; way of access or transit.
      Hence, a common avenue to various apartments in a
      building; a hall; a corridor.
      [1913 Webster]

            And with his pointed dart
            Explores the nearest passage to his heart. --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

            The Persian army had advanced into the . . .
            passages of Cilicia.                  --South.
      [1913 Webster]

   6. A continuous course, process, or progress; a connected or
      continuous series; as, the passage of time.
      [1913 Webster]

            The conduct and passage of affairs.   --Sir J.
                                                  Davies.
      [1913 Webster]

            The passage and whole carriage of this action.
                                                  --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   7. A separate part of a course, process, or series; an
      occurrence; an incident; an act or deed. "In thy passages
      of life." --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

            The . . . almost incredible passage of their
            unbelief.                             --South.
      [1913 Webster]

   8. A particular portion constituting a part of something
      continuous; esp., a portion of a book, speech, or musical
      composition; a paragraph; a clause.
      [1913 Webster]

            How commentators each dark passage shun. --Young.
      [1913 Webster]

   9. Reception; currency. [Obs.] --Sir K. Digby.
      [1913 Webster]

   10. A pass or en encounter; as, a passage at arms.
       [1913 Webster]

             No passages of love
             Betwixt us twain henceforward evermore. --Tennyson.
       [1913 Webster]

   11. A movement or an evacuation of the bowels.
       [1913 Webster]

   12. In parliamentary proceedings:
       (a) The course of a proposition (bill, resolution, etc.)
           through the several stages of consideration and
           action; as, during its passage through Congress the
           bill was amended in both Houses.
       (b) The advancement of a bill or other proposition from
           one stage to another by an affirmative vote; esp.,
           the final affirmative action of the body upon a
           proposition; hence, adoption; enactment; as, the
           passage of the bill to its third reading was delayed.
           "The passage of the Stamp Act." --D. Hosack.
           [1913 Webster]

                 The final question was then put upon its
                 passage.                         --Cushing.
           [1913 Webster]

   {In passage}, in passing; cursorily. "These . . . have been
      studied but in passage." --Bacon.

   {Middle passage}, {Northeast passage}, {Northwest passage}.
      See under {Middle}, {Northeast}, etc.

   {Of passage}, passing from one place, region, or climate, to
      another; migratory; -- said especially of birds. "Birds of
      passage." --Longfellow.

   {Passage hawk}, a hawk taken on its passage or migration.

   {Passage money}, money paid for conveyance of a passenger, --
      usually for carrying passengers by water.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: Vestibule; hall; corridor. See {Vestibule}.
        [1913 Webster]
    
from Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
Passage
denotes in Josh. 22:11, as is generally understood, the place
where the children of Israel passed over Jordan. The words "the
passage of" are, however, more correctly rendered "by the side
of," or "at the other side of," thus designating the position of
the great altar erected by the eastern tribes on their return
home. This word also designates the fords of the Jordan to the
south of the Sea of Galilee (Judg. 12:5, 6), and a pass or rocky
defile (1 Sam. 13:23; 14:4). "Passages" in Jer. 22:20 is in the
Revised Version more correctly "Abarim" (q.v.), a proper name.
    
from Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
PASSAGE. A way over water; a voyage made over the sea or great river; as, 
the Sea Gull had a quick passage: the money paid for the transportation of a 
person over the sea; as, my, passage to Europe was one hundred and fifty 
dollars. 
    
from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
468 Moby Thesaurus words for "passage":
      Brownian movement, about-face, abysm, abyss, acceptance, access,
      acciaccatura, accomplished fact, accomplishment, achievement, act,
      acta, action, adit, adoption, advance, advancement, advancing,
      adventure, air lock, aisle, alchemy, alley, allowance, alteration,
      ambulatory, anacrusis, angular motion, aperture, appoggiatura,
      approach, approval, arabesque, arcade, areaway, arrangements,
      arroyo, artery, article, ascending, ascent, assimilation,
      assumption, authorization, avenue, axial motion, back matter,
      backflowing, backing, backward motion, bass passage, becoming,
      blow, book, bourdon, box canyon, breach, break, breezeway, bridge,
      burden, cadence, cadenza, canto, canyon, career, cavity, change,
      change-over, channel, chap, chapter, chasm, check, chimney, chink,
      chorus, citation, clause, cleft, cleuch, climbing, cloister,
      clough, coda, col, colonnade, coloratura, column, commerce,
      communication, commutation, concurrent resolution, conduction,
      conduit, connection, constitution, contagion, convection,
      conversion, corridor, coulee, couloir, coup, course, covered way,
      crack, cranny, crevasse, crevice, crossing, cruise, current, cut,
      cwm, dealing, dealings, deed, defile, delivery, dell, deportation,
      descending, descent, development, diapedesis, diffusion, dike,
      dissemination, ditch, division, doing, doings, donga,
      downward motion, draw, drift, driftage, duct, ebbing, effort,
      egress, elapse, embellishment, emigration, enaction, enactment,
      endeavor, endorsement, endorsing, enterprise, entrance,
      entranceway, entry, entryway, excavation, excerpt, excerption,
      exchange, exit, expatriation, exploit, export, exportation,
      exposition, expulsion, extract, extraction, extradition,
      facilities, fait accompli, fascicle, fault, feat, ferry, figure,
      fioritura, fissure, flaw, flight, flip-flop, flourish, flow, flume,
      flux, folderol, folio, ford, forward motion, forwardal, forwarding,
      foyer, fracture, freedom, front matter, furrow, furtherance,
      furthering, gallery, gangplank, gangway, gap, gape, gash,
      gathering, gest, globe-trotting, go, go-ahead, going, grace,
      grace note, groove, growth, gulch, gulf, gully, hall, hallway,
      hand, handiwork, harmonic close, headway, hole, immigration,
      import, importation, in, in-migration, incidental, incidental note,
      incision, ingress, inlet, installment, intake, interchange,
      interlude, intermezzo, intermigration, intersection,
      introductory phrase, job, joint, joint resolution, journey,
      journeying, junction, kloof, lane, lapse, lawmaking, leak, leg,
      legalization, legislation, legislature, legitimatization,
      legitimization, liberty, line, livraison, lobby, locomotion,
      loggia, long mordent, maneuver, march, means of access, measure,
      metastasis, metathesis, metempsychosis, migration, moat, mordent,
      motion, mounting, move, movement, moving, musical phrase,
      musical sentence, mutation, mutual transfer, naturalization, notch,
      nullah, number, oblique motion, ocean trip, ongoing, onrush,
      onward course, opening, operation, ordainment, orifice, ornament,
      osmosis, out-migration, outlet, overpass, overt act, page,
      paragraph, part, pass, passageway, passing, passing over, path,
      performance, perfusion, pergola, period, peristyle, permission,
      phrase, plunging, portico, portion, pralltriller, privilege,
      proceeding, production, progress, progression, progressiveness,
      promotion, quotation, radial motion, railroad tunnel,
      random motion, ratification, ravine, re-formation, reconversion,
      reduction, reflowing, refluence, reflux, refrain, regression,
      remigration, rent, res gestae, resolution, response, retrogression,
      reversal, rift, rime, rising, ritornello, road, rolling,
      rolling on, roulade, route, run, rupture, rush, sail, sanction,
      scissure, sea trip, seam, section, selected passage, selection,
      sentence, serial, set, shakedown cruise, sheet, shift, shipment,
      shipping, sideward motion, signature, single mordent, sinking,
      slit, slot, soaring, split, spread, spreading, stanza, statement,
      step, sternway, strain, stream, stroke, stunt, subsiding, swarm,
      swarming, switch, switch-over, tailpiece, text, thing, thing done,
      thoroughfare, tour de force, tourism, touristry, trade, traffic,
      trafficking, traject, trajet, transaction, transduction, transfer,
      transfer of property, transference, transformation, transfusion,
      transit, transition, translation, translocation, transmigration,
      transmigration of souls, transmission, transmittal, transmittance,
      transplacement, transplantation, transposal, transposition, travel,
      traveling, traversal, traverse, trek, trench, trend, trip, trough,
      troughing, troughway, tunnel, turn, turning into, tutti,
      tutti passage, underpass, undertaking, upward motion, valley,
      variation, verse, vestibule, visa, void, volte-face, volume,
      voyage, wadi, way, way in, work, works

    

[email protected]