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Definition of passage - 10 dictionary results

pas⋅sage

1  [pas-ij] noun, verb, -saged, -sag⋅ing.
Use passage in a Sentence
–noun
1. a portion or section of a written work; a paragraph, verse, etc.: a passage of Scripture.
2. a phrase or other division of a musical work.
3. Fine Arts. an area, section, or detail of a work, esp. with respect to its qualities of execution: passages of sensitive brushwork.
4. an act or instance of passing from one place, condition, etc., to another; transit.
5. the permission, right, or freedom to pass: to refuse passage through a territory.
6. the route or course by which a person or thing passes or travels.
7. a hall or corridor; passageway.
8. an opening or entrance into, through, or out of something: the nasal passages.
9. a voyage by water from one point to another: a rough passage across the English Channel.
10. the privilege of conveyance as a passenger: to book passage on an ocean liner.
11. the price charged for accommodation on a ship; fare.
12. a lapse or passing, as of time.
13. a progress or course, as of events.
14. the enactment into law of a legislative measure.
15. an interchange of communications, confidences, etc., between persons.
16. an exchange of blows; altercation or dispute: a passage at arms.
17. the act of causing something to pass; transference; transmission.
18. an evacuation of the bowels.
19. an occurrence, incident, or event.
–verb (used without object)
20. to make a passage; cross; pass; voyage.
Origin:
1250–1300; ME < OF, equiv. to pass(er) to pass + -age -age

pas⋅sage

2  [pas-ij, puh-sahzh] noun, verb, -saged, -sag⋅ing. Manège.
–noun
1. a slow, cadenced trot executed with great elevation of the feet and characterized by a moment of suspension before the feet strike the ground.
–verb (used without object)
2. (of a horse) to execute such a movement.
3. (of a rider) to cause a horse to execute such a movement.
–verb (used with object)
4. to cause (a horse) to passage.
Origin:
1790–1800; < F passager (v.), var. of passéger < It passeggiare to walk; see pace 1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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pas·sage 1   (pās'ĭj)   
n.  
  1. The act or process of passing, especially:
    1. A movement from one place to another, as by going by, through, over, or across; transit or migration.
    2. The process of elapsing: the passage of time.
    3. The process of passing from one condition or stage to another; transition: the passage from childhood to adulthood.
    4. Enactment into law of a legislative measure.
    5. A path, channel, or duct through, over, or along which something may pass: the nasal passages.
    6. A corridor. See Synonyms at way.
    7. An occurrence or event: "Another encouraging passage took place . . . when heads of state . . . took note of the extraneous factors affecting their economies that are beyond their control" (Helen Kitchen).
    8. Something, such as an exchange of words or blows, that occurs between two persons: a passage at arms.
    9. A segment of a written work or speech: a celebrated passage from Shakespeare.
    10. Music A segment of a composition, especially one that demonstrates the virtuousity of the composer or performer: a passage of exquisite beauty, played to perfection.
    11. A section of a painting or other piece of artwork; a detail.
  2. A journey, especially one by air or water: a rough passage on the stormy sea.
  3. The right to travel as a passenger, especially on a ship: book passage; pay for one's passage.
  4. The right, permission, or power to come and go freely: Only medical supply trucks were granted safe passage through enemy territory.
    1. A path, channel, or duct through, over, or along which something may pass: the nasal passages.
    2. A corridor. See Synonyms at way.
    3. An occurrence or event: "Another encouraging passage took place . . . when heads of state . . . took note of the extraneous factors affecting their economies that are beyond their control" (Helen Kitchen).
    4. Something, such as an exchange of words or blows, that occurs between two persons: a passage at arms.
    5. A segment of a written work or speech: a celebrated passage from Shakespeare.
    6. Music A segment of a composition, especially one that demonstrates the virtuousity of the composer or performer: a passage of exquisite beauty, played to perfection.
    7. A section of a painting or other piece of artwork; a detail.
    1. An occurrence or event: "Another encouraging passage took place . . . when heads of state . . . took note of the extraneous factors affecting their economies that are beyond their control" (Helen Kitchen).
    2. Something, such as an exchange of words or blows, that occurs between two persons: a passage at arms.
    3. A segment of a written work or speech: a celebrated passage from Shakespeare.
    4. Music A segment of a composition, especially one that demonstrates the virtuousity of the composer or performer: a passage of exquisite beauty, played to perfection.
    5. A section of a painting or other piece of artwork; a detail.
    1. A segment of a written work or speech: a celebrated passage from Shakespeare.
    2. Music A segment of a composition, especially one that demonstrates the virtuousity of the composer or performer: a passage of exquisite beauty, played to perfection.
    3. A section of a painting or other piece of artwork; a detail.
  8. Physiology An act of emptying, as of the bowels.
  9. Biology The process of passing or maintaining a group of microorganisms or cells through a series of hosts or cultures.
  10. Obsolete Death.

[Middle English, from Old French, from passer, to pass; see pass.]
pas·sage 2   (pās'ĭj, pə-säzh')   
n.  A slow cadenced trot in which the horse raises and returns to the ground first one diagonal pair of feet, then the other.
v.   pas·saged, pas·sag·ing, pas·sag·es

v.   intr.
To execute such a trot in dressage.
v.   tr.
To cause (a horse) to execute such a trot in dressage.

[French, from passager, to execute a passage, alteration (influenced by passer, to pass) of passéger, from Italian passeggiare, from passare, to pass, from Vulgar Latin *passāre, from Latin passus, step; see pace1.]
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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Passage

Pas"sage\, n. [F. passage. See Pass, v. i.]

1. The act of passing; transit from one place to another; movement from point to point; a going by, over, across, or through; as, the passage of a man or a carriage; the passage of a ship or a bird; the passage of light; the passage of fluids through the pores or channels of the body.

What! are my doors opposed against my passage! --Shak.

2. Transit by means of conveyance; journey, as by water, carriage, car, or the like; travel; right, liberty, or means, of passing; conveyance.

The ship in which he had taken passage. --Macaulay.

3. Price paid for the liberty to pass; fare; as, to pay one's passage.

4. Removal from life; decease; departure; death. [R.] "Endure thy mortal passage." --Milton.

When he is fit and season'd for his passage. --Shak.

5. Way; road; path; channel or course through or by which one passes; way of exit or entrance; way of access or transit. Hence, a common avenue to various apartments in a building; a hall; a corridor.

And with his pointed dart Explores the nearest passage to his heart. --Dryden.

The Persian army had advanced into the . . . passages of Cilicia. --South.

6. A continuous course, process, or progress; a connected or continuous series; as, the passage of time.

The conduct and passage of affairs. --Sir J. Davies.

The passage and whole carriage of this action. --Shak.

7. A separate part of a course, process, or series; an occurrence; an incident; an act or deed. "In thy passages of life." --Shak.

The . . . almost incredible passage of their unbelief. --South.

8. A particular portion constituting a part of something continuous; esp., a portion of a book, speech, or musical composition; a paragraph; a clause.

How commentators each dark passage shun. --Young.

9. Reception; currency. [Obs.] --Sir K. Digby.

10. A pass or en encounter; as, a passage at arms.

No passages of love Betwixt us twain henceforward evermore. --Tennyson.

11. A movement or an evacuation of the bowels.

12. In parliamentary proceedings: (a) The course of a proposition (bill, resolution, etc.) through the several stages of consideration and action; as, during its passage through Congress the bill was amended in both Houses. (b) The advancement of a bill or other proposition from one stage to another by an affirmative vote; esp., the final affirmative action of the body upon a proposition; hence, adoption; enactment; as, the passage of the bill to its third reading was delayed. "The passage of the Stamp Act." --D. Hosack.

The final question was then put upon its passage. --Cushing.

In passage, in passing; cursorily. "These . . . have been studied but in passage." --Bacon.

Middle passage, Northeast passage, Northwest passage. See under Middle, Northeast, etc.

Of passage, passing from one place, region, or climate, to another; migratory; -- said especially of birds. "Birds of passage." --Longfellow.

Passage hawk, a hawk taken on its passage or migration.

Passage money, money paid for conveyance of a passenger, -- usually for carrying passengers by water.

Syn: Vestibule; hall; corridor. See Vestibule.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : passage
Spanish: pasillo, pasadizo,
German: der Durchgang,
Japanese: 通路
More Translations »

passage 
c.1290, "action of passing," from O.Fr. passage (11c.), from passer "to go by" (see pass (v.)). Originally "a road, passage," meaning "corridor in a building" first recorded 1611. Meaning "a portion of writing" is from c.1611, of music, from 1674.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Main Entry: 1pas·sage
Pronunciation: 'pas-ij
Function: noun
1 : the action or process of passing from one place, condition, orstage to another passage of air from the lungs —Encyclopedia Americana>
2 : an anatomical channel passages>
3 : a movement or an evacuation of the bowels
4 a : an act or action of passing something or undergoing a passing <passage of a catheter through theurethra> b : incubation of a pathogen (as a virus) in a tissue culture, a developing egg, or a living organism to increase the amount of pathogen or to alter its characteristicspassages of the virus through mice>

Main Entry: 2passage
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Forms: pas·saged; pas·sag·ing
: to subject to passage passaged in series seven times —Journal of the American Medical Association>
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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passage pas·sage (pās'ĭj)
n.

  1. A movement from one place to another.
  2. The process of passing from one condition or stage to another.
  3. A path, channel, or duct through, over, or along which something may pass.
  4. An act of emptying, as of the bowels.
  5. The process of passing or maintaining a group of microorganisms or cells through a series of hosts or cultures.

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

denotes in Josh. 22:11, as is generally understood, the place where the children of Israel passed over Jordan. The words "the passage of" are, however, more correctly rendered "by the side of," or "at the other side of," thus designating the position of the great altar erected by the eastern tribes on their return home. This word also designates the fords of the Jordan to the south of the Sea of Galilee (Judg. 12:5, 6), and a pass or rocky defile (1 Sam. 13:23; 14:4). "Passages" in Jer. 22:20 is in the Revised Version more correctly "Abarim" (q.v.), a proper name.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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