Passage Definition

passage

English

Etymology 1

From Old French passage, from passer (“to pass”)

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈpæsɪʤ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

passage (plural passages)

1. A paragraph or section of text or music with particular meaning.

   passage of scripture

   She struggled to play the difficult passages.

2. Part of a path or journey.

   He made his passage through the trees carefully, mindful of the stickers.

3. The official approval of a bill or act by a parliament.

   The company was one of the prime movers in lobbying for the passage of the act.

4. An artistic term describing use of tight brushwork to link objects in separate spatial plains. Commonly seen in Cubist works.
5. A passageway or corridor.
6. (caving) An underground cavity, formed by water or falling rocks, which is much longer than it is wide.
7. (euphemistic) The vagina.
   • 1986, Bertrice Small, A Love for All Time,^[1] New American Library, ISBN 9780451821416, page 463:

     With a look of triumph that he was unable to keep from his dark eyes he slid into her passage with one smooth thrust, […]

   • 1987, Usha Sarup, Expert Lovemaking, Jaico Publishing House, ISBN 978-81-7224-162-9, page 53:

     This way, the tip of your penis will travel up and down her passage.

   • 2009, Cat Lindler, Kiss of a Traitor, Medallion Press, ISBN 9781933836515, page 249:

     At the same moment, Aidan plunged two fingers deep into her passage and broke through her fragile barrier.

8. The act of passing
   • 1886, Pacific medical journal Volume 29

     He claimed that he felt the passage of the knife through the ilio-cascal valve, from the very considerable pain which it caused.

Derived terms

• rite of passage
• passagemaker
• passage maker

Translations

Verb

passage (third-person singular simple present passages, present participle passaging, simple past and past participle passaged)

1. (medicine) To pass a pathogen through a hosts or media

   He passaged the virus through a series of goats.

   After 24 hours, the culture was passaged to an agar plate.

2. (rare) To make a passage, especially by sea; to cross

   They passaged to America in 1902.

Etymology 2

From French passager, from Italian passeggiare

Pronunciation

Noun

passage (plural passages)

1. (dressage) A movement in classical dressage, in which the horse performs a very collected, energetic, and elevated trot that has a longer period of suspension between each foot fall than a working trot.

Verb

passage (third-person singular simple present passages, present participle passaging, simple past and past participle passaged)

1. (intransitive, dressage) To execute a passage movement
   • 1915, Cunninghame Graham, Hope^[2], page 18:

     After a spring or two, the horse passaged and reared, and lighting on a flat slab of rock which cropped up in the middle of the road, slipped sideways and fell with a loud crash […]

Statistics

• Most common English words before 1923: touch · higher · military · #891: passage · wood · matters · physical

External links

• passage in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• passage in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• passage at OneLook Dictionary Search

Dutch

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

Noun

passage f.

1. A paragraph or section of text with particular meaning. ~ of scripture.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pɑ.saːʒ/, X-SAMPA: /pa.saZ@/

• Audio (France, Paris)

  (file)

• Homophones: passagent, passages

Etymology 1

From Old French, from passer +‎ -age.

Noun

passage m. (plural passages)

1. The act of going through a place or event.
2. The time when such an act occurs.
3. (uncountable) Circulation, traffic, movement.
4. (astronomy) Moment when a star or planet occults another,or crosses a meridian.
5. A short stay.
6. A trip or travel, especially by boat.
7. The act of going from a state to another.
8. Graduation from a school year.
9. The act of making something undergo a process.
10. the act of handing something to someone.
11. An access way.
12. A laid out way allowing to go across something.
13. An alley or alleyway off-limits to cars.
14. A paragraph or section of text or music.

Derived terms

• de passage
• passage à l'acte
• passage à niveau
• passage à tabac
• passage à vide
• passage clouté
• passage piéton
• passager
• passagèrement
• rite de passage

Etymology 2

Verb form of passager.

Verb

passage

1. first-person singular present indicative of passager
2. third-person singular present indicative of passager
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of passager
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of passager
5. second-person singular imperative of passager

Old French

Noun

passage m. (oblique plural passages, nominative singular passages, nominative plural passage)

1. passage (part of a route or journey)
   • circa 1180, Chrétien de Troyes, Lancelot ou le Chevalier de la charrette:

     Volez que je vos die gierres Del passage com il est max ?

     Do you want me to tell you Of the passage, how bad it is?

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