pass (1) — OET

pass1

verb

1 the traffic passing through the village:

go, proceed, move, progress, make one's way, travel, drive, fly;

run, flow, course, stream, roll, drift, sweep.

▷antonyms halt, stop.

2 every time a car passed him, he worried it might be the police:

overtake, go past, move past, go by, get ahead of, pull ahead of, go ahead of;

outstrip, outdistance, lap, leave behind;

British overhaul.

3 as time passed, my feelings towards him slowly changed:

elapse, go by, go past, proceed, progress, advance, wear on, slip by, slip away, roll by, glide by, tick by.

4 he passed the time writing letters:

occupy, spend, fill, use (up), employ, devote, take up, while away, beguile;

kill, waste, fritter, dissipate.

5 pass me the salt, please:

hand, let someone have, give, hand over, hand round, reach;

transfer, convey, deliver;

throw, toss;

informal chuck, bung.

6 he passed the ball back to the goalkeeper:

kick, hit, throw, head, lob, loft.

7 on her death in 1865, the estate passed to her grandson:

be transferred, be made over, be turned over, be signed over, go, devolve, be left, be bequeathed, be handed down/on, be given, be consigned, be passed on.

8 his death passed almost unnoticed:

happen, occur, take place, come about, transpire;

literary befall;

rare eventuate.

9 the storm passed as quickly as it had begun:

come to an end, cease to exist, fade, fade away, melt away, blow over, run its course, ebb, die out, evaporate, vanish, peter out, draw to a close, disappear, finish, end, cease, terminate;

rare evanish.

10 God's peace passes all human understanding:

surpass, exceed, go beyond, transcend, outdo, surmount, outstrip.

11 he passed the entrance exam:

be successful in, succeed in, gain a pass in, get through, come through, meet the requirements of, pass muster in;

qualify, graduate;

informal come up to scratch in, come up to snuff in, sail through, scrape through.

▷antonyms fail.

12 the Senate passed the defence bill by seventy votes to sixteen:

approve, vote for, accept, ratify, adopt, carry, agree to, authorize, sanction, endorse, validate, legalize, put into effect, enact;

informal OK.

▷antonyms reject.

13 there was no way she could let that comment pass:

go unnoticed, go unheeded, stand, go, be accepted, go unremarked, go undisputed, go uncensored.

14 I'm hardly in a position to pass judgement on her:

declare, pronounce, utter, express, deliver, issue, set forth.

15 he felt a stinging sensation every time he passed urine:

discharge, excrete, eliminate, evacuate, expel, emit, void, release, let out.

□ come to pass

such a moment came to pass one fateful Saturday back in 1985:

happen, come about, occur, transpire, arise;

literary befall.

□ pass away (also pass on)

she passed away peacefully in her sleep:

die, lose one's life, depart this life, expire, breathe one's last, draw one's last breath, meet one's end, meet one's death, lay down one's life, be no more, perish, be lost, go the way of the flesh, go the way of all flesh, go to glory, go to one's last resting place, go to meet one's maker, cross the great divide, cross the Styx;

informal give up the ghost, kick the bucket, bite the dust, croak, flatline, conk out, buy it, turn up one's toes, cash in one's chips, go belly up, shuffle off this mortal coil, go the way of the dinosaurs;

push up the daisies, be six feet under;

British, informal snuff it, peg out, pop one's clogs, hop the twig/stick;

North American, informal bite the big one, buy the farm, check out, hand in one's dinner pail;

Australian, New Zealand, informal go bung;

literary exit;

archaic decease.

▷antonyms live, survive.

□ pass for (also pass as)

she could easily pass for someone half her age:

be mistaken for, be taken for, be regarded as, be accepted as.

□ pass off

1 the rally passed off peacefully:

take place, go off, happen, occur, be carried though, be completed, be brought to a conclusion, be accomplished;

turn out, fall out, pan out;

North American go down.

2 when the dizziness passed off he sat up and looked at his watch:

wear off, come to an end, fade, fade away, pass, disappear, vanish, die down, ebb.

□ pass someone off

he added Natasha's name to his passport, passing her off as his daughter:

misrepresent, falsely represent, give a false identity to;

disguise, dress up.

□ pass out

she probably banged her head when she passed out:

faint, collapse, lose consciousness, black out, keel over;

informal flake out, conk out;

literary swoon.

□ pass something over

the court cannot possibly pass over these offences:

disregard, overlook, ignore, avoid considering, not take into consideration, forget, pay no attention to, let pass, let go, gloss over, take no notice of, pay no heed to, take no account of, close one's eyes to, turn a deaf ear to, turn a blind eye to, omit, skip;

archaic overleap.

□ pass something up

I can't pass up a bargain like this, can I?:

fail to take advantage of, turn down, reject, refuse, decline, deny oneself, give up, forgo, let go by, let pass, miss, miss out on, ignore, brush aside, dismiss, waive, spurn, neglect, abandon;

informal give something a miss.

noun

1 you can only get in if you have a pass:

permit, warrant, authorization, licence;

passport, visa, safe conduct, exeat;

free ticket, free admission, complimentary ticket;

rare laissez-passer.

2 a cross-field pass:

kick, hit, throw, shot, header.

□ come to a pretty pass

things have come to a pretty pass if the tabloids are influencing England's selection policy:

reach a regrettable/bad state (of affairs), be in a worrying state, be in a sad plight, be in troubled circumstances, be in dire straits;

informal be in a pickle/hole.

□ make a pass at

I bet he made a pass at Elizabeth:

make sexual advances to, make advances to, make sexual overtures to, proposition, make a sexual approach to;

informal come on to, make a play for;

North American, informal hit on, make time with, put the make on;

dated make love to.

pass (1) Oxford Dictionary of English