Part 106

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.