Meanings
nounpassdown (plural passdowns)
plural passdowns
- A transfer of information or responsibilities from one worker to another, especially between shifts.
My job as a chemical quality assurance lab technician is as follows: get passdown from previous technician about how the plant is running, prepare lab for my shift, receive samples every two hours, run tests, compute results, clean-up, give passdown to next technician.
1995, The Kuder Book of People Who Like Their Work, →ISBN, page 528
Origin
Nominalization of the phrasal verb pass down.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
passdown. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/passdown
MLA
“passdown.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/passdown. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “passdown,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/passdown.
Source: passdown on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.