Pas"sive*ness, n. The quality or state of being passive; unresisting
submission.
To be an effect implies passiveness, or the being subject to the
power and action of its cause.
J. Edwards.
Pas*siv"i*ty (?), n. [Cf. F. passivitÈ.] 1. Passiveness; -- opposed to
activity. Jer. Taylor.
2. (Physics) The tendency of a body to remain in a given state, either
of motion or rest, till disturbed by another body; inertia. Cheyne.
3. (Chem.) The quality or condition of any substance which has no
inclination to chemical activity; inactivity.
Pass"-key` (?), n. A key for opening more locks than one; a master key.
Pass"less, a. Having no pass; impassable. Cowley.
Pass"man (?), n.; pl. Passmen (&?;). One who passes for a degree,
without honors. See Classman, 2. [Eng. Univ.]
Pass"o`ver (?), n. [Pass + over. See Pasch.] (Jewish Antiq.) (a) A
feast of the Jews, instituted to commemorate the sparing of the Hebrews
in Egypt, when God, smiting the firstborn of the Egyptians, passed over
the houses of the Israelites which were marked with the blood of a
lamb. (b) The sacrifice offered at the feast of the passover; the
paschal lamb. Ex. xii.
Pass`-pa*role" (?), n. [F. passe- parole.] (Mil.) An order passed from
front to rear by word of mouth.
Pass"port (&?;), n. [F. passeport, orig., a permission to leave a port
or to sail into it; passer to pass + port a port, harbor. See Pass, and
Port a harbor.] 1. Permission to pass; a document given by the
competent officer of a state, permitting the person therein named to
pass or travel from place to place, without molestation, by land or by
water.
Caution in granting passports to Ireland.
Clarendon.
2. A document carried by neutral merchant vessels in time of war, to
certify their nationality and protect them from belligerents; a sea
letter.
3. A license granted in time of war for the removal of persons and
effects from a hostile country; a safe- conduct. Burrill.
4. Figuratively: Anything which secures advancement and general
acceptance. Sir P. Sidney.
His passport is his innocence and grace.
Dryden.
||Pas"sus (?), n.; pl. L. Passus, E. Passuses (&?;). [L., a step, a
||pace. See Pace.] A division or part; a canto; as, the passus of Piers
||Plowman. See 2d Fit.
Pass"word` (?), n. A word to be given before a person is allowed to
pass; a watchword; a countersign. Macaulay.
Pas"sy*meas`ure (?), n. [Corrupted fr. It. passamezzo.] [Obs.] See
Paspy. Shak.
Past (?), a. [From Pass, v.] Of or pertaining to a former time or
state; neither present nor future; gone by; elapsed; ended; spent; as,
past troubles; past offences. "Past ages." Milton.
Past master. See under Master.
Past, n. A former time or state; a state of things gone by. "The past,
at least, is secure." D. Webster.
The present is only intelligible in the light of the past, often a
very remote past indeed.
Trench.
Past, prep. 1. Beyond, in position, or degree; further than; beyond the
reach or influence of. "Who being past feeling." Eph. iv. 19. "Galled
past endurance." Macaulay.
Until we be past thy borders.
Num. xxi. 22.
Love, when once past government, is consequently past shame.
L'Estrange.
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