pass muster

Idioms & Phrases

pass muster

Meet a required standard, as in That yard cleanup won't pass muster with Mom. This expression originally meant "to undergo a military review without censure," muster referring to an assembling of troops for inspection or a similar purpose. [Late 1500s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
Cite This Source
Dictionary.com, LLC. Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved.
  • Please Login or Sign Up to use the Recent Searches feature