What is "passing"

Passing \Pass"ing\, a.

1. Relating to the act of passing or going; going by, beyond, through, or away; departing.

2. Exceeding; surpassing, eminent.
   --Chaucer. ``Her passing deformity.''
   --Shak.

   Passing note (Mus.), a character including a passing tone.

   Passing tone (Mus.), a tone introduced between two other tones, on an unaccented portion of a measure, for the sake of smoother melody, but forming no essential part of the harmony.

Passing \Pass"ing\, n. The act of one who, or that which, passes; the act of going by or away.

Passing bell, a tolling of a bell to announce that a soul is passing, or has passed, from its body (formerly done to invoke prayers for the dying); also, a tolling during the passing of a funeral procession to the grave, or during funeral ceremonies.
--Sir W. Scott.
--Longfellow.

Passing \Pass"ing\, adv. Exceedingly; excessively; surpassingly; as, passing fair; passing strange. ``You apprehend passing shrewdly.''
--Shak.

Pass \Pass\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Passed; p. pr. & vb. n. Passing.] [F. passer, LL. passare, fr. L. passus step, or from pandere, passum, to spread out, lay open. See Pace.]

1. To go; to move; to proceed; to be moved or transferred from one point to another; to make a transit; -- usually with a following adverb or adverbal phrase defining the kind or manner of motion; as, to pass on, by, out, in, etc.; to pass swiftly, directly, smoothly, etc.; to pass to the rear, under the yoke, over the bridge, across the field, beyond the border, etc. ``But now pass over [i. e., pass on].''
   --Chaucer.

   On high behests his angels to and fro Passed frequent.
   --Milton.

   Sweet sounds rose slowly through their mouths, And from their bodies passed.
   --Coleridge.

2. To move or be transferred from one state or condition to another; to change possession, condition, or circumstances; to undergo transition; as, the business has passed into other hands.

   Others, dissatisfied with what they have, . . . pass from just to unjust.
   --Sir W. Temple.

3. To move beyond the range of the senses or of knowledge; to pass away; hence, to disappear; to vanish; to depart; specifically, to depart from life; to die.

   Disturb him not, let him pass paceably.
   --Shak.

   Beauty is a charm, but soon the charm will pass.
   --Dryden.

   The passing of the sweetest soul That ever looked with human eyes.
   --Tennyson.

4. To move or to come into being or under notice; to come and go in consciousness; hence, to take place; to occur; to happen; to come; to occur progressively or in succession; to be present transitorily.

   So death passed upon all men.
   --Rom. v. 12.

   Our own consciousness of what passes within our own mind.
   --I. Watts.

5. To go by or glide by, as time; to elapse; to be spent; as, their vacation passed pleasantly.

   Now the time is far passed.
   --Mark vi. 35

6. To go from one person to another; hence, to be given and taken freely; as, clipped coin will not pass; to obtain general acceptance; to be held or regarded; to circulate; to be current; -- followed by for before a word denoting value or estimation. ``Let him pass for a man.''
   --Shak.

   False eloquence passeth only where true is not understood.
   --Felton.

   This will not pass for a fault in him.
   --Atterbury.

7. To advance through all the steps or stages necessary to validity or effectiveness; to be carried through a body that has power to sanction or reject; to receive legislative sanction; to be enacted; as, the resolution passed; the bill passed both houses of Congress.

8. To go through any inspection or test successfully; to be approved or accepted; as, he attempted the examination, but did not expect to pass.

9. To be suffered to go on; to be tolerated; hence, to continue; to live along. ``The play may pass.''
   --Shak.

10. To go unheeded or neglected; to proceed without hindrance or opposition; as, we let this act pass.

11. To go beyond bounds; to surpass; to be in excess. [Obs.] ``This passes, Master Ford.''
    --Shak.

12. To take heed; to care. [Obs.]

    As for these silken-coated slaves, I pass not.
    --Shak.

13. To go through the intestines.
    --Arbuthnot.

14. (Law) To be conveyed or transferred by will, deed, or other instrument of conveyance; as, an estate passes by a certain clause in a deed.
    --Mozley & W.

15. (Fencing) To make a lunge or pass; to thrust.

16. (Card Playing) To decline to play in one's turn; in euchre, to decline to make the trump. She would not play, yet must not pass. --Prior. To bring to pass, To come to pass. See under Bring, and Come. To pass away, to disappear; to die; to vanish. ``The heavens shall pass away.'' --2 Pet. iii. 10. ``I thought to pass away before, but yet alive I am.'' --Tennyson. To pass by, to go near and beyond a certain person or place; as, he passed by as we stood there. To pass into, to change by a gradual transmission; to blend or unite with. To pass on, to proceed. To pass on or To pass upon.

    1. To happen to; to come upon; to affect. ``So death passed upon all men.''
       --Rom. v. 12. ``Provided no indirect act pass upon our prayers to define them.''
       --Jer. Taylor.

    2. To determine concerning; to give judgment or sentence upon. ``We may not pass upon his life.''
       --Shak.

       To pass off, to go away; to cease; to disappear; as, an agitation passes off.

       To pass over, to go from one side or end to the other; to cross, as a river, road, or bridge.

"in a (sur)passing degree, surpassingly," late 14c., from pass (v.).

"death," 1869, verbal noun from pass (v.).

1. 1 That passes away; ephemeral. (from 14th c.) 2 (context now rare literary English) pre-eminent, excellent, extreme. (from 14th c.) 3 vague, cursory. (from 18th c.) 4 going past - '''passing''' cars. adv. (context now literary or archaic English) surpassingly, greatly. (from 14th c.) n. 1 death, dying; the end of something. (from 14th c.) 2 The fact of going past; a movement from one place to another or a change from one state to another. (from 14th c.) 3 (context legal English) The act of approve a bill etc. (from 15th c.) 4 (context sports English) The act of passing a ball etc. to another player. (from 19th c.) 5 A form of juggling where several people pass props between each other, usually clubs or rings. v

2. (present participle of pass English)

1. adj. enduring a very short time; "the ephemeral joys of childhood"; "a passing fancy"; "youth's transient beauty"; "love is transitory but at is eternal"; "fugacious blossoms" [syn: ephemeral, short-lived, transient, transitory, fugacious]

2. of advancing the ball by throwing it; "a team with a good passing attack"; "a pass play" [syn: passing(a), pass(a)] [ant: running(a)]

3. allowing you to pass (e.g., an examination or inspection) satisfactorily; "a passing grade" [syn: passing(a)]

4. hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough; "a casual (or cursory) inspection failed to reveal the house's structural flaws"; "a passing glance"; "perfunctory courtesy" [syn: casual, cursory, passing(a), perfunctory]

1. n. (American football) a play that involves one player throwing the ball to a teammate; "the coach sent in a passing play on third and long" [syn: pass, passing play, passing game]

2. euphemistic expressions for death; "thousands mourned his passing" [syn: loss, departure, exit, expiration, going, release]

3. the motion of one object relative to another; "stellar passings can perturb the orbits of comets" [syn: passage]

4. the end of something; "the passing of winter"

5. a bodily process of passing from one place or stage to another; "the passage of air from the lungs"; "the passing of flatus" [syn: passage]

6. going by something that is moving in order to get in front of it; "she drove but well but her reckless passing of every car on the road frightened me" [syn: overtaking]

7. success in satisfying a test or requirement; "his future depended on his passing that test"; "he got a pass in introductory chemistry" [syn: pass, qualifying] [ant: failing]

adv. to an extreme degree or extent; "his eyesight was exceedingly defective" [syn: exceedingly, extremely]

Passing is the ability of a person to be regarded as a member of an identity group or category different than their own, which may include racial identity, ethnicity, caste, social class, sexuality, gender, religion, age and/or disability status. Passing may result in privileges, rewards, or an increase in social acceptance, or be used to cope with difference anxiety. Thus, passing may serve as a form of self-preservation or self-protection in instances where expressing one's true or authentic identity may be dangerous. Passing may require acceptance into a community and can also lead to temporary or permanent leave from another community to which an individual previously belonged. Thus, passing can result in separation from ones original self, family, friends or previous living experiences. While successful passing may contribute to economic security, safety, and avoidance of stigma, it may take an emotional toll as a result of denial of the authentic self and may lead to depression or self-loathing.

Etymologically, the term is simply the nominalisation of the verb pass in its phrasal use with for or as, as in a counterfeit passing for the genuine article or an impostor passing as another person. It has been in popular use since at least the late 1920s.

Passing is the act of juggling between two or more people. It is most commonly seen in toss juggling.

Racial passing occurs when a person classified as a member of one racial group is also accepted as a member of a different racial group. The term was used especially in the United States to describe a person of multiracial ancestry assimilating into the white majority during times when legal and social conventions of hypodescent classified the person as a minority, subject to racial segregation and discrimination.

Passing may refer to:

Passing the ball is a key part of association football. The purpose of passing is to keep possession of the ball by maneuvering it on the ground between different players and to advance it up the playing field.

This brings an advantage in that the team secures possession of the ball, without allowing the opposition an opportunity to attack. The skill of dribbling the ball is seen much less in modern football matches than in the first half of the twentieth century. This observation is often noted with regret by fans of the game who were familiar with older styles.

1. redirect American football#Advancing the ball

In the context of gender, passing refers to a person's ability to be regarded at a glance to be either a cisgender man or a cisgender woman. Typically, passing involves a mixture of physical gender cues (for example, hair style or clothing) as well as certain behavioral attributes that tend to be culturally associated with a particular gender. Irrespective of a person's presentation, many experienced crossdressers assert that confidence is far more important for passing than the physical aspects of appearance. Groups of people whose members may be concerned with passing are crossdressers, drag queens and drag kings, trans men, trans women and those who identify as a third, non- binary, or genderqueer identity.

Passing is a novel by American author Nella Larsen, first published in 1929. Set primarily in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City in the 1920s, the story centers on the reunion of two childhood friends, Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield, and their increasing fascination with each other's lives. The title and central theme of the novel refer to the practice of racial " passing;" Clare Kendry's passing as white with her white husband, John (Jack) Bellew, is its most significant depiction in the novel, and a catalyst for the tragic events.

Larsen's exploration of race was informed by her own mixed racial heritage and the increasingly common practice of racial passing in the 1920s. Praised upon publication, the novel has since been celebrated in modern scholarship for its complex depiction of race, gender and sexuality. As one of only two novels by Larsen, Passing has been significant to her ranked at the forefront of several literary canons and has been the subject of considerable scholarly criticism.

Passing is a common technique in sports that use balls and pucks. A pass consists of an intentional transfer of the ball from one player to another of the same team. Examples of sports that involve passing are association football, basketball, ice hockey, and American football. Certain games only allow backward passing (for example, rugby football), while others allow both. Of those that allow forward passing, some prohibit the receiver from being ahead of the pass at a certain point on the field (e.g., the offside rule in ice hockey), while other do not (e.g., American football).

Passing in basketball has been defined as "The deliberate attempt to move a live ball between two teammates", a definition which might equally apply across other sports equally well, albeit with a change to the item being passed where appropriate.

In certain sports, a pass to a teammate that leads to a successful scoring move is recorded, and tracked. In many sports, including basketball and ice hockey, this action is known as an assist. In basketball, only the last pass before a successful score is credited as an assist. Ice hockey attributes up to two assists on a goal scoring play. In that case, the last two teammates (not including the goal scorer) to touch the puck before the goal is scored would be credited with an assist. A team with a high number of assists demonstrates effective ball (or puck) passing between teammates, which is critical in most team sports, as it tends to lead to more, and higher quality scoring opportunities.

In baseball, the ball is only passed between teammates on defense. The goal is to pass the ball from one teammate to another so they can either tag, or force out a base runner. Assists are also tracked in baseball, and any defender that touches a fairly hit ball that leads to a putout is credited.