pass for something

pass for (someone or something)

1. To be able to be accepted as or believed to be someone or something else. The fact that glass can so easily pass for diamond among most consumers tells me that the gem's value is kind of a hoax. With the right clothes and makeup, I think you could easily pass for an adult.
2. To cause someone or something be accepted as or believed to be someone or something else. In this usage, a noun or pronoun can be used between "pass" and "for." A fancy glass exterior isn't enough to pass this budget phone for the premium gadget the company wants you to think that it is. A nice suit could easily pass you for a respectable businessman.
See also: pass
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

pass for something

in. to pay for something; to treat someone by paying for something. Come on. Let’s go out. I’ll pass for dinner.
See also: pass, something
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • pass as
  • pass as (someone or something)
  • pass for
  • pass for (someone or something)
  • glass over
  • glass in
  • write about
  • write about (someone or something)
  • bloody up
  • diamond
References in periodicals archive
Ehlers argues that it is not only Alice but also Leonard who was able to pass for something that the court decided that he or she was not.
Racial Imperatives: Discipline, performativity, and struggles against subjection by Nadine Ehlers
In fact, the five-bedroom family home could pass for something much younger if first glances are anything to go by.
Spacious and stylish any self; dream home In association with
Far removed from his natural habitat, the green-skinned, Hawaiian shirt-wearing reptile finds it virtually impossible to camouflage himself in his new all-brown environment, choosing instead to pass for something he's not, a fearless gunfighter named Rango.
The lizard of awes
The image might pass for something manufactured with a compass set in geometry class, but mathematical certainties are far away: The longer we stare at the work's pristine patterns, the more precarious our sense of balance becomes.
Nasreen Mohamedi: MILTON KEYNES GALLERY
"We wanted to make sure it'd pass for something you could buy in the supermarket," researcher Morris Benjaminson, Ph.D., told New Scientist magazine.
Fish fillet la lab. (Indications)
So in this instance, one Canadian location didn't have to pass for something else--it could play itself.
Tiny place, big shoots: Nova Scotia offers picturesque sites and tax credits galore