Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PAS'SI-BLE-NESS, n.

The same as Passibility.

PAS'SIM, adv. [L.]

Here and there; every where.

PASS'ING, ppr.

1. Moving; proceeding.
2. adj. Exceeding; surpassing; eminent. – Fairfax.
3. Adverbially used to enforce or enhance the meaning of another word; exceedingly; as, passing fair; passing strange.

PASS'ING-BELL, n.

The bell that rings at the hour of death to obtain prayers for the passing soul. It is also used for the bell that rings immediately after death. – Swift.

PASS'ING-LY, adv.

Exceedingly. [Obs.] Wickliffe.

PASS'ING-NOTE, n.

In music, a note introduced between two others for the purpose of softening a distance or melodizing a passage. – Busby.

PAS'SION, n. [L. passio, from patior, to suffer.]

1. The impression or effect of an external agent upon a body; that which is suffered or received. A body at rest affords us no idea of any active power to move, and when set in motion, it is rather a passion than an action in it. – Locke.
2. Susceptibility of impressions from external agents. The differences of moldable and not moldable, &c., and many other passions of matter, are plebeian notions. [Little used.] – Bacon.
3. Suffering; emphatically, the last suffering of the Savior. To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion, by many infallible proofs. – Acts i.
4. The feeling of the mind, or the sensible effect of impression; excitement, perturbation or agitation of mind; as desire, fear, hope, joy, grief, love, hatred. The eloquence of the orator is employed to move the passions.
5. Violent agitation or excitement of mind, particularly such as is occasioned by an offense, injury or insult; hence, violent anger. – Watts.
6. Zeal; ardor; vehement desire. When statesmen are ruled by faction and interest, they can have no passion for the glory of their country. – Addison.
7. Love. He owned his passion for Amestris. – Rowe.
8. Eager desire; as, a violent passion for fine clothes. – Swift.

PAS'SION, v.i.

To be extremely agitated. [Not used.] – Shak.

PAS'SION-A-RY, n.

A book in which are described the sufferings of saints and martyrs. – Warton.

PAS'SION-ATE, a. [It. passionato; Fr. passionné.]

1. Easily moved to anger; easily excited or agitated by injury or insult; applied to persons. Homer's Achilles is haughty and passionate. – Prior.
2. Highly excited; vehement; warm; applied to things; as, passionate affection; passionate desire; passionate concern.
3. Expressing strong emotion; animated; as, passionate eloquence.

PAS'SION-ATE, v.t.

To affect with passion; to express passionately. [Not used.] – Spenser. Shak.

PAS'SION-ATE-LY, adv.

1. With passion; with strong feeling; ardently; vehemently; as, to covet any thing passionately; to be passionately fond.
2. Angrily; with vehement resentment; as, to speak passionately.

PAS'SION-ATE-NESS, n.

1. State of being subject to passion or anger.
2. Vehemence of mind. – Boyle.

PAS'SION-ED, a.

1. Disordered; violently affected. – Spenser.
2. Expressing passion. – Spenser.

PAS'SION-FLOW-ER, n.

A flower and plant of the genus Passiflora.

PAS'SION-LESS, a.

1. Not easily excited to anger; of a calm temper. – Shelton.
2. Void of passion.

PAS'SION-WEEK, n.

The week immediately preceding the festival of Easter; so called because in that week our Savior's passion and death took place.

PAS'SIVE, a. [It. passivo; Sp. pasivo; Fr. passif; L. passivus, from passus, patior, to suffer.]

1. Suffering; not acting, receiving or capable of receiving impressions from external agents. We were passive spectators, not actors in the scene. The mind is wholly passive in the reception of all its simple ideas. – Locke. God is not in any respect passive. – Bradwardine.
2. Unresisting; not opposing; receiving or suffering without resistance; as, passive obedience; passive submission to the laws. Passive verb, in grammar, is a verb which expresses passion, or the effect of an action of some agent; as, in L. doceor, I am taught; in English, she is loved and admired by her friends; he is assailed by slander. Passive obedience, as used by writers on government, denotes not only quiet unresisting submission to power, but implies the denial of the right of resistance, or the recognition of the duty to submit in all cases to the existing government. Passive prayer, among mystic divines, is a suspension of the activity of the soul or intellectual faculties, the soul remaining quiet and yielding only to the impulses of grace. – Encyc. Passive commerce, trade in which the productions of a country are carried by foreigners in their own bottoms. [See Active commerce.]

PAS'SIVE-LY, adv.

1. With a passive nature or temper; with a temper disposed to submit to the acts of external agents, without resistance. – Dryden.
2. Without agency. – Pearson.
3. According to the form of the passive verb. – Lilly.

PAS'SIVE-NESS, n.

1. Quality of receiving impressions from external agents or causes; as, the passiveness of matter.
2. Passibility; capacity of suffering. We shall lose our passiveness with our being. – Decay of Piety.
3. Patience; calmness; unresisting submission. – Fell.

PAS-SIV'I-TY, n.

1. Passiveness – which see. [Little used.] – Cheyne.
2. The tendency of a body to persevere in a given state, either of motion or rest, till disturbed by another body. – Good.

PASS'LESS, a.

Having no passage. Cowley.

PASS'O-VER, n. [pass and over.]

1. A feast of the Jews, instituted to commemorate the providential escape of the Hebrews, in Egypt, when God smiting the first born of the Egyptians, passed over the houses of the Israelites, which were marked with the blood of the paschal lamb.
2. The sacrifice offered at the feast of the passover.

PASS'-PA-ROLE', n. [pass and parole.]

In military affairs, a command given at the head of an army and communicated by word of mouth to the rear. – Encyc.

PASS'PORT, n. [Fr. passeport; passer, to pass, and porter, to carry; It. passaporto; Sp. pasaporte.]

1. A written license from a king or other proper authority, granting permission or safe conduct for one to pass through his territories, or to pass from one country to another, or to navigate a particular sea without hinderance or molestation.
2. A license for importing or exporting contraband goods or movables without paying the usual duties.
3. That which enables one to pass with safety or certainty. His passport is his innocence and grace. – Dryden.