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BY-PASS

 - 5 dictionary results

by⋅pass

  [bahy-pas, -pahs] noun, verb, -passed or (Rare) -past; -passed or -past; -pass⋅ing.
Use BY-PASS in a Sentence
–noun
1. a road enabling motorists to avoid a city or other heavy traffic points or to drive around an obstruction.
2. a secondary pipe or other channel connected with a main passage, as for conducting a liquid or gas around a fixture, pipe, or appliance.
3. Electricity. shunt (def. 9).
4. a surgical procedure in which a diseased or obstructed hollow organ is temporarily or permanently circumvented. Compare coronary bypass, gastric bypass, heart-lung machine, intestinal bypass.
–verb (used with object)
5. to avoid (an obstruction, city, etc.) by following a bypass.
6. to cause (fluid or gas) to follow a secondary pipe or bypass.
7. to neglect to consult or to ignore the opinion or decision of: He bypassed the foreman and took his grievance straight to the owner.
Also, by-pass.

Origin:
1840–50; appar. back formation from by-passage; see by 1 (adj.), passage 1

Related forms:
bypasser, by-passer, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To BY-PASS
by·pass also by-pass   (bī'pās')   
n.  

  1. A highway or section of a highway that passes around an obstructed or congested area.

  2. A pipe or channel used to conduct gas or liquid around another pipe or a fixture.

  3. A means of circumvention.

  4. Electricity See shunt.

  5. Medicine

    1. An alternative passage created surgically to divert the flow of blood or other bodily fluid or circumvent an obstructed or diseased organ.

    2. A surgical procedure to create such a channel: a coronary artery bypass; a gastric bypass.

tr.v.   by·passed also by-passed, by·pass·ing also by-pass·ing, by·pass·es also by-pass·es

  1. To avoid (an obstacle) by using an alternative channel, passage, or route.

  2. To be heedless of; ignore: bypassed standard office procedures.

  3. To channel (piped liquid, for example) through a bypass.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

bypass 
1848, of certain pipes in a gasworks, from by + pass. First used 1922 for "road for the relief of congestion;" fig. sense is from 1928. The heart operation was first so-called 1957.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: by·pass
Pronunciation: 'bI-"pas
Function: noun
: a surgically established shunt bypass of blood from the rightatrium to the aorta>; also : a surgical procedure for the establishment of a shunt —see CORONARYBYPASS, JEJUNOILEAL BYPASS —bypass transitive verb
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

bypass by·pass (bī'pās')
n.

  1. A passage created surgically to divert the flow of blood or other bodily fluid or to circumvent an obstructed or diseased organ.

  2. A surgical procedure to create such a channel.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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