passing

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of pass

comparative more passing · superlative most passing

1. That passes away; ephemeral.First known use 14th c.

   […]this is just a passing thing But I believe in your sweet loving, loving, babe With every summer falling rain

   1968 December 8, Henry Cosby, Sylvia Moy, Stevie Wonder, “I’d Be a Fool Right Now”, in For Once in My Life, performed by Stevie Wonder, Tamla Records

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   And solace sought he none from priest nor leech, / And soon the same in movement and in speech / As heretofore he fill'd the passing hours […]

   1814, Lord Byron, Lara, I.15

   It might be possible to dismiss #dittowatch as just another passing internet fancy. After all, hashtags are ephemeral.

   2010 September 21, Marianne Kirby, The Guardian

   Synonyms: brief, fleeting, transient, earthly, ephemeral, brief, deciduous, evanescent

2. archaicliteraryPre-eminent, excellent, extreme.First known use 14th c.

   her passing deformity

   c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]

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   It was by dint of passing strength, / That he moved the massy stone at length.

   1835, Washington Irving, The Crayon Miscellany

   That parliament was destined, in one short hour of convulsive strength, in one short hour of passing glory, to humble the pride and alarm the fears of England.

   1847, Robert Holmes, The Case of Ireland Stated

   Synonyms: intense, maximal, uttermost, extreme, ferocious, exquisite, intense, pluperfect

3. Vague, cursory.First known use 18th c.

   to make a passing comment

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   to have a passing acquaintance with somebody or something

   Ardent pro-lifer Rick Santorum made one passing reference to "authenticity" as a litmus test for a conservative candidate, but if he was obliquely referring to Romney (and he was), you could be excused for missing the dig.

   2011 June 14, Stewart J Lawrence, The Guardian

4. Going past.

   passing cars

5. That passes in any sense.

   a passing transsexual

1. archaicliterarynot comparableSurpassingly, greatly.First known use 14th c.

   [...] for she was called a fair lady, and a passing wise, and her name was called Igraine.

   1485 July 28, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter I, in William Caxton, editor, Le Morte D’Arthur, volume 1

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   How wonderful is Death, / Death and his brother Sleep! / One, pale as yonder waning moon / With lips of lurid blue; / The other, rosy as the morn / When throned on ocean's wave / It blushes o'er the world: / Yet both so passing wonderful!

   1813, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Canto I”, in Queen Mab; […], London: […] P. B. Shelley, […], →OCLC, page 3

   She's passing fair; but so demure is she / So quiet is her gown, so smooth her hair, […]

   1926, Dorothy Parker, “Roundel”, in Enough Rope, page 89

   I find it passing strange that convicts understand honest folk, but honest folk don't understand convicts.

   2010 October 29, Simon Hattenstone, quoting David Taylor, “Letters from lifers”, in The Guardian

plural passings

1. countableuncountableDeath, dying; the end of something.First known use 14th c.
2. countableuncountableThe fact of going past; a movement from one place to another or a change from one state to another.First known use 14th c.

   And since he did not see Louie by the folding door, Louie knew that in his former passings and repassings he could not have seen her either.

   1913, Oliver Onions, The Story of Louie

3. countableuncountablelawThe act of approving a bill etc.First known use 15th c.

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   But capital was proving difficult to raise; rumours were in the air that the G.W.R. and L.S.W.R. were about to patch up their quarrel, and the people of Southampton, who twelve months earlier had staged a torch-light procession to celebrate the passing of the D.N.S.R. Act, were increasingly loath to part with their cash.

   1955 February, T. B. Sands, “The Didcot, Newbury & Southampton Railway—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 79

4. countableuncountablehobbiesThe act of passing a ball etc. to another player.First known use 19th c.
5. countableuncountableA form of juggling where several people pass props between each other, usually clubs or rings.
6. countableuncountablehuman sciencesThe ability of a person to be regarded as a member of an identity group or category different from their own.

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   When there is a discrepancy between an individual's actual social identity and his virtual one, it is possible for this fact to be known to us before we normals contact him, or to be quite evident when he presents himself before us. He is a discredited person, and it is mainly he I have been dealing with until now. … However, when his differentness is not immediately apparent, and is not known beforehand, … he is a discreditable, not a discredited person …. The issue is … that of managing information about his failing. To display or not to display; to tell or not to tell; to let on or not to let on; to lie or not to lie; and in each case, to whom, how, when, and where. … It is this second general issue, the management of undisclosed discrediting information about self, that I am focusing on in these notes - in brief, 'passing'.

   1963, Erving Goffman, 'Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity', Ch.2 at p.57, 58 (page numbers per the Pelican Books 1976 reprint)