Phrasal verbs with pass

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What does ‘pass’ mean?

The word ‘pass‘ can mean many different things. As a verb, the meaning is to move in a particular direction/go past or be successful.

For example:

Pass is a regular verb. The past tense and past participle is passed.

Phrasal verbs with ‘pass’ include:

pass around/round
meaning – give to everyone
example – The pizza is ready. Can you pass it around while I put another one in.
pass as
meaning – pretend to be something
example – I don’t want to pay full price. Do you think I can pass as a child?
pass away
meaning – die
example – My grandma is terminally ill, I think she is going to pass away soon.
pass back
meaning – return something
example – The teacher passed back our projects one by one and read out our results.

pass by
meaning – visit briefly or miss an opportunity
example – I was passing by your side of town, so I thought I’d stop and say hello.

pass down
meaning – give something to younger generations
example – I love passing down ghost stories about the village to my nephews and nieces.
pass for
meaning – be accepted as something when it isn’t
example – Your painting is so good, it could pass for a Van Gogh original.

pass off
meaning – fool people into thinking something is genuine
example – A guy at the market is passing off fake Rolex watches as real ones.
pass on
meaning – give something to someone that was given to you
example – My daughter has passed on her tummy bug. I won’t be at work for a few days.
pass out
meaning – lose consciousness or distribute
example – I was very nervous as the teacher passed out the exam papers.

pass over
meaning – ignore/leave out
example – We’ll pass over section 4, it’s not relevant to today’s class.
pass through
meaning – visit somewhere without stopping or only stop briefly
example – I passed through the village last night, so I stopped in Aunt Mabel’s for a cuppa.
pass to
meaning – give responsibility/ ownership/ an object to someone
example – Lilly passed the bread knife to Carly.