PASSING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does passing mean? 

• PASSING (noun)
  The noun PASSING has 7 senses:

1. (American football) a play that involves one player throwing the ball to a teammate

2. euphemistic expressions for death

3. the motion of one object relative to another

4. the end of something

5. a bodily reaction of changing from one place or stage to another

6. going by something that is moving in order to get in front of it

7. success in satisfying a test or requirement

  Familiarity information: PASSING used as a noun is common.

• PASSING (adjective)
  The adjective PASSING has 4 senses:

1. lasting a very short time

2. of advancing the ball by throwing it

3. allowing you to pass (e.g., an examination or inspection) satisfactorily

4. hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough

  Familiarity information: PASSING used as an adjective is uncommon.

• PASSING (adverb)
  The adverb PASSING has 1 sense:

1. to an extraordinary degree

  Familiarity information: PASSING used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PASSING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(American football) a play that involves one player throwing the ball to a teammate

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

pass; passing; passing game; passing play

Context example:

the coach sent in a passing play on third and long

Hypernyms ("passing" is a kind of...):

football play ((American football) a play by the offensive team)

Domain category:

American football; American football game (a game played by two teams of 11 players on a rectangular field 100 yards long; teams try to get possession of the ball and advance it across the opponents goal line in a series of (running or passing) plays)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "passing"):

aerial; forward pass (a pass to a receiver downfield from the passer)

lateral; lateral pass (a pass to a receiver upfield from the passer)

spot pass (a pass to a designated spot on the field; the receiver should arrive at that spot the same time the ball does)

Derivation:

pass (throw (a ball) to another player)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Euphemistic expressions for death

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

departure; exit; expiration; going; loss; passing; release

Context example:

thousands mourned his passing

Hypernyms ("passing" is a kind of...):

death; decease; expiry (the event of dying or departure from life)

Domain usage:

euphemism (an inoffensive or indirect expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive or too harsh)

Derivation:

pass (pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The motion of one object relative to another

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

passage; passing

Context example:

stellar passings can perturb the orbits of comets

Hypernyms ("passing" is a kind of...):

motion; movement (a natural event that involves a change in the position or location of something)

Derivation:

pass (travel past)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The end of something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Context example:

the passing of winter

Hypernyms ("passing" is a kind of...):

end; last (the final stage or concluding parts of an event or occurrence)

Derivation:

pass (disappear gradually)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A bodily reaction of changing from one place or stage to another

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

passage; passing

Context example:

the passing of flatus

Hypernyms ("passing" is a kind of...):

reaction; response (a bodily process occurring due to the effect of some antecedent stimulus or agent)

Derivation:

pass (eliminate from the body)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Going by something that is moving in order to get in front of it

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

overtaking; passing

Context example:

she drove but well but her reckless passing of every car on the road frightened me

Hypernyms ("passing" is a kind of...):

reordering (a rearrangement in a different order)

Derivation:

pass (travel past)

Sense 7

Meaning:

Success in satisfying a test or requirement

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

pass; passing; qualifying

Context example:

he got a pass in introductory chemistry

Hypernyms ("passing" is a kind of...):

success (an attainment that is successful)

Antonym:

failing (failure to reach a minimum required performance)

Derivation:

pass (accept or judge as acceptable)

pass (go successfully through a test or a selection process)

• PASSING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lasting a very short time

Synonyms:

ephemeral; fugacious; passing; short-lived; transient; transitory

Context example:

fugacious blossoms

Similar:

impermanent; temporary (not permanent; not lasting)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Of advancing the ball by throwing it

Synonyms:

pass; passing

Context example:

a pass play

Domain category:

football; football game (any of various games played with a ball (round or oval) in which two teams try to kick or carry or propel the ball into each other's goal)

Antonym:

running (of advancing the ball by running)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Allowing you to pass (e.g., an examination or inspection) satisfactorily

Context example:

a passing grade

Similar:

satisfactory (giving satisfaction)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough

Synonyms:

casual; cursory; passing; perfunctory; superficial

Context example:

In his paper, he showed a very superficial understanding of psychoanalytic theory

Similar:

careless (marked by lack of attention or consideration or forethought or thoroughness; not careful)

• PASSING (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

To an extraordinary degree

Synonyms:

passing; surpassingly

Context example:

I will mention only one particular aspect of the current mess because ... this one is surely something new and passing strange

 Context examples 

"You will," said she, passing her arm round me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She had not been there long before she heard that the king’s eldest son was passing by, going to be married; and she went to one of the windows and looked out.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

An observer sitting on Thalassa would see Naiad in an orbit that varies wildly in a zigzag pattern, passing by twice from above and then twice from below.

(NASA Finds Neptune Moons Locked in 'Dance of Avoidance', NASA)

And now it is, that I begin to see her solitary brother passing through the dark streets at night, and looking, as he goes, among the wandering faces.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

While we were thus engaged, I observed a cow passing by, whereupon I pointed to her, and expressed a desire to go and milk her.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The spell of passing beauty all about them was too strong.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He might be only passing through.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes.

(Asteroid discovered by NASA to pass Earth safely, NASA)

To keep Fanny and the Bertrams from a knowledge of what was passing became his first object.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The volume of blood per unit time passing through a specified location, such as a point in a blood vessel or an entire organ.

(Blood Flow Rate, NCI Thesaurus)