pass

come (or bring) to pass happen (or cause to happen). chiefly literary

make a pass at make an amorous or sexual advance to.

pass go successfully complete the first stage of an undertaking.

☞ The phrase comes from the name of a manoeuvre in the board game Monopoly.

2007DVD Verdict The worst thing (story-wise, anyway) is that because the film just wants to pass go and collect, its resolution is incredibly unsatisfying.

pass by on the other side avoid having anything to do with something that should demand your attention or concern.

☞ This expression refers to the parable of the good Samaritan, recounted in Luke 10. A man travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho was attacked and robbed during the course of his journey. He was left lying by the road and the first two people who saw him 'passed by on the other side' of the road. It was the third traveller, the Samaritan (a man from Samaria) who helped him.

pass water urinate. dated, euphemistic

sell the pass betray a cause. British

☞ As in head someone off at the pass (seehead), pass is here used in the sense of a narrow route through mountains, viewed as a strategic point in time of war. Selling the pass was supplying information to the enemy that would enable them to circumvent or otherwise get through the obstacle (turn the pass). In the mid 19th century it was considered to be an Irish expression meaning 'betray your fellow countrymen by selling information to the authorities'.

2009Guardian My eye was caught by an anguished attack by the Times religious affairs commentator Ruth Gledhill against Rowan Williams for … selling the pass on gay rights and women in the Anglican church.

☞ For other idioms containing pass, see the entry for the main word in the idiom (for example, pass the buck at buck).