Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PASS, v.i. [Fr. passer, It. passare, Sp. pasar, Port. passar, to pass; G. pass, fit, which is the Eng. pat, and as a noun, a pass, a defile, an ambling, pace; passen, to be fit, to suit; D. pas, a pace, a step, a pass, a passage, a defile, time, season; van pas, fit, convenient, pat in time; passen, to fit, to try, to mind, tend, or wait on, to make ready, to pass; Dan. pas, a pass or passport, a mode or medium; passer, to be fit, to suit, to be applicable; passerer, to pass, to come or go over; Sw. pass, a pass or passage, a passport; passa, to fit, to suit, to adapt, to become; passera, to pass; W. pâs, that is expulsive, that causes to pass, a pass, an exit, a cough, hooping-cough; pasiaw, to pass, to cause an exit, to expel; Sp. pasar, to pass, to go or travel, to bring or convey, to penetrate, to exceed or surpass, to depart, to suffer, bear, undergo, (L. patior, whence passion,) to happen or come to pass; pasear, to walk; paseo, a walking; a gait; paso, a pace, a step, gait; (Gr. πατεω;) It. passare, to pass; passo, a pace, a step; passabile, tolerable; passibile, suffering. We observe that this word unites pass, the L. patior, to suffer, and peto, competo, in the sense of fit. The Gr. πατεω, to walk or step, and πασχω, to suffer, are from the same root. The word pass coincides with L. passus, a step, and this is from pando, to extend; n being casual, the original word was pado. The radical sense is to stretch, reach, extend, to open; a pace is the reach of the foot, and fitness is from reaching or coming to, like convenient. We learn from this word that the sense of suffering is from extending, holding on, or continuing. See ברא in the Introduction. Ar. فَاتَ fata, to pass; Heb. פסח, פשע; Ch. פסע; Class Bd, No. 45, 64, and Bs or Bz, No. 52, 53, 70.]

1. To move, in almost any manner; to go; to proceed from one place to another. A man may pass on foot, on horseback or in a carriage; a bird and a meteor pass through the air; a ship passes on or through the water; light passes from the sun to the planets; it passes from the sun to the earth in about eight minutes.
2. To move from one state to another; to alter or change or to be changed in condition; as, to pass from health to sickness; to pass from just to unjust. – Temple.
3. To vanish; to disappear; to be lost. In this sense, we usually say, to pass away. Beauty is a charm, but soon the charm will pass. – Dryden.
4. To be spent; to go on or away progressively. The time when the thing existed, is the idea of that span of duration which passed between some fixed period and the being of that thing. – Locke.
5. To die in to depart from life. [Little used.] – Shak.
6. To be in any state; to undergo; with under; as, to pass under the rod.
7. To be enacted; to receive the sanction of a legislative house or body by a majority of votes. Neither of these bills has yet passed the house of commons. – Swift.
8. To be current; to gain reception or to be generally received. Bank bills pass as a substitute for coin. False eloquence passeth only where true is not understood. – Felton.
9. To be regarded; to be received in opinion or estimation. This will not pass for a fault in him, till it is proved to one in us. – Atterbury.
10. To occur; to be present; to take place; as, to notice what passes in the mind. – Watts.
11. To be done. Provided no indirect act pass upon our prayers to defile them. – Taylor.
12. To determine; to give judgment or sentence. Though well we may not pass upon his life. – Shak.
13. To thrust; to make a push in fencing or fighting. – Shak.
14. To omit; to suffer to go unheeded or neglected. We saw the act, but let it pass.
15. To move through any duct or opening; as, substances in the stomach that will not pass, nor be converted into ailment. – Arbuthnot.
16. To percolate; to be secreted; as, juices that pass from the glands into the mouth.
17. To be in a tolerable state. A middling sort of man was left well enough by his father to pass, but he could never think he had enough, so long as any had more. – L'Estrange.
18. To be transferred from one owner to another. The land article passed by livery and seizin.
19. To go beyond bounds. [Obs.] For this we generally use surpass. – Shak.
20. To run or extend; as a line or other thing. The north limit of Massachusetts passes three miles north of the Merrimac. To come to pass, to happen; to arrive; to come; to be; to exist; a phrase much used in the Scriptures. To pass away, to move from sight; to vanish. #2. To be spent; to be lost. A good part of their lives passes away without thinking. Locke. To pass by, to move near and beyond. He passed by as we stood in the road. To pass on, to proceed. To pass over, to go or move from side to side; to cross; as, to pass over to the other side. To pass into, to unite and blend, as two substances or colors, in such a manner that it is impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins.