See Also: passage(1)(dictionary)
passage(2)(dictionary)
passage(dictionary)
passage(dictionary)
Le Passage(tourism)
PASSAGE(law)
Passage(medicine)
passage, rite of(encyclopedia)
Northwest Passage, the(dictionary)
Passage to India, A(dictionary)

passage(1) (iou)



passage noun. ME.
[Old & mod. French, formed as PASS verb: see -AGE.]
I. The action of passing.
The action of going or moving onward, across, or past; movement from one place or point to another, or over or through a space or medium; transit. ME.
G. B. Shaw He snatches the curtain from her and bars her passage. Practical Boat Owner The Red Sea has..political troubles affecting the passage of small craft. M. Warnock The past is a paradise from which we have been excluded by the passage of time.
b. The passing by of people. Also, passers-by. rare. L16.
Shakespeare Othello What, ho! No watch? No passage? Murder! Murder!
c. The extension of a line, string, etc., from one point to another. rare. E17.
d. The migratory flight of a bird. Chiefly in on passage, passage migrant below. L18.
Possibility of passing through; liberty, leave, or right to pass through. ME.
J. D. Whitney The depression in the ridge is not sufficiently deep to give passage to a watercourse.
An act of travelling from one place to another, a journey, (now usu. by sea). ME.
W. M. Clarke They..sailed across to Boulogne..and had a remarkably smooth passage.
b. The right of conveyance as a passenger, esp. by sea; accommodation as a passenger. M17.
A. Mason He had barely enough money to buy his passage to the next port. P. Auster Booking passage on some ship and sailing to China.
fig. Transition from one state or condition to another; spec. (now rare) death. ME.
A charge levied upon passengers, a toll. L15-L19.
The fact of a coin, custom, etc., being generally accepted; currency. L15-M17.
The passing into law of a legislative measure. L16.
An act of defecation; in pl., motions, faeces. L17.
Horsemanship. A slow collected trot in which the feet are momentarily held high before striking the ground. E18.
The action of causing something to pass or go through. M19.
Pediatrics The passage of urine with an odor..similar to that of maple syrup.
Medicine & Biology. The process of propagating micro-organisms or cells in a series of host organisms or culture media, so as to maintain them or modify their virulence; a stage in this process. L19.
II. A means of passing.
That by which a person or thing may pass; a road, a path, a route, a channel, etc.; a duct, vessel, etc., in the body. ME.
Southey Was it the toil of human hands Had hewn a passage in the rock? S. Leacock 'Oh, well,' the Cave-man went on, 'there are lots of ways and passages through.'
b. A place at which a river or strait may be crossed by means of a ford, ferry, or bridge. Now rare or obsolete. ME.
spec. A (narrow) way giving access, esp. to various rooms in a building; a corridor; an alley. E17.
R. L. Stevenson The servant led us down a matted passage. Beano This stone movesit must be a secret passage. fig.: J. L. Waten Soft light that cleaved silvery passages through the darkness.
III.
Hist. An obsolete game for two players using three dice, in which the aim was to throw doublets over ten. LME.
IV.
A thing that passes or takes place; an occurrence, an event; a proceeding. Now chiefly spec. an (esp. amorous) interchange of words, actions, etc. (usu. in pl.). M16.
W. Besant Certain passages and rumours of passages between Will Stephen and this simple country maid. E. F. Benson There had been that little passage before dinner..a shade of friction about her smoking.
b. An exchange of blows, a (now only armed) fight; fig. a verbal dispute. Now only in passage of arms, passage at arms. L16.
A usu. short part or section of a book, speech, etc., considered by itself, esp. for a specific reason. M16.
Day Lewis His voice would choke at an affecting passage in one of his own sermons. L. C. Knights The clarity of the analysis mark the passage as unmistakably post-Restoration. H. R. Landon Nissen suppressed certain letters and passages within letters.
b. A remark, an observation. Only in M17.
c. Music. Orig., a progression from one note to another by means of intermediate notes; a short series of such notes, a phrase. Now, a usu. short part or section of a musical composition, esp. one forming an identifiable unit. L17.
d. Art. A particular part of a picture; spec. a part where one tone merges into another; the technique of achieving this effect. M19.
e. gen. An episode in a course of action. rare. M19.
Phrases: bird of passage (a) a migrant bird; esp. = passage-migrant below; (b) a transient visitor. in passage in passing, by the way. middle passage: see MIDDLE adjective. north-east passage: see NORTH-EAST adjective. north-west passage: see NORTH-WEST adjective. on passage (of a bird) on a flight of migration. purple passage: see PURPLE adjective & noun. RITE of passage.
Comb.: passage-bird = bird of passage above; passage-boat a boat for carrying passengers, plying regularly between two places; passage grave Archaeology a usu. megalithic burial chamber inside a man-made mound and with a passage connecting it to the outside; passage-hawk a full-grown falcon taken during its migration for the purpose of training; passage-migrant a bird that stays for a short time in an area on its seasonal migration route; passage-money money charged for a journey, fare; passage-room rare a room through which one passes to another; passage tomb Archaeology = passage grave above; passageway = sense 13 above; passage-work (the execution of) music of interest chiefly for the scope it gives for virtuosic display.