Pass

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Pass

As a verb, to utter or pronounce, as when the court passes sentence upon a prisoner. Also to proceed; to be rendered or given, as when judgment is said to pass for the plaintiff in a suit.

In legislative parlance, a bill or resolution is said to pass when it is agreed to or enacted by the house, or when the body has sanctioned its adoption by the requisite majority of votes; in the same circumstances, the body is said to pass the bill or motion.

When an auditor appointed to examine any accounts certifies to their correctness, she is said to pass them; i.e., they pass through the examination without being detained or sent back for inaccuracy or imperfection.

The term also means to examine anything and then authoritatively determine the disputed questions that it involves. In this sense a jury is said to pass upon the rights or issues in litigation before them.

In the language of conveyancing, the term means to move from one person to another; i.e. to be transferred or conveyed from one owner to another.

To publish; utter; transfer; circulate; impose fraudulently. This is the meaning of the word when referring to the offense of passing counterfeit money or a forged paper.

As a noun, permission to pass; a license to go or come; a certificate, emanating from authority, wherein it is declared that a designated person is permitted to go beyond certain boundaries that, without such authority, he could not lawfully pass. Also a ticket issued by a railroad or other transportation company, authorizing a designated person to travel free on its lines, between certain points or for a limited time.

West's Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

PASS. In the slave states this word signifies a certificate given by the master or mistress to a slave, in which it is stated that he is permitted to leave his home, with the authority of his master or mistress. The paper on which such certificate is written is also called a pass.

PASS, practice. To be given, or entered; to proceed; as, let the judgment pass for the plaintiff.

TO PASS. To accomplish, to complete, to decide.
     2. The title to goods passes by the sale whenever the parties have agreed upon the sale and the price, and nothing remains to be done to complete the agreement. 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 939.
     3. When a jury decide upon the rights of the parties, which are in issue, they are said to pass upon them.

A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States. By John Bouvier. Published 1856.
References in periodicals archive ?
The Internet has made it easier for kids to find portions of written work to pass off as their own.
This attempt to pass off "backward" for "forward"--a quirk of the source material underscored by Goldstein's manipulation--stands as a particularly compelling visual analogy for the cyclical nature of history and exploitation, as well as for the endless diet of recycled stories Hollywood dishes our.
It's a shame these activists feel it necessary to cloak their beliefs and intentions, but it's worse when they try to pass off their religious doctrines as science and call for lessons about religious concepts in public school classrooms.
Marine Corps was arrested Tuesday in Okinawa Prefecture on suspicion of trying to pass off counterfeit U.S.
Both Microsoft and Perdue "contractors" recently argued successfully that they were really regular employees their companies tried to pass off as independent contractors just to avoid providing benefits, stock options or overtime pay.
On a similarly tawdry stage, Bill Clinton employs every special effect to make his fiscal demagoguery appear a grand vision, to pass off America's great capitalist engine as a mere spinoff of the Clinton economic recovery.
More than 60 per cent of the population regularly pass off a shop-bought cake as "something they made earlier" according to a recent survey.
Smaller "sneaker" males frequently cut in and pass off sperm to paired females; some females also carry sperm from earlier, offshore matings.
"As a group who themselves have attempted to pass off mythology as science, they can readily identify rivals who are attempting, even if unconsciously, the same substitution.'
With time, he acquired other identification proofs and documents that allowed him to pass off as an Indian national, the police said.
It's just the law of averages." Animal Aid director Andrew Tyler added: "To pass off the deaths of six horses in a single day's racing as a statistical blip amounts to cold-hearted complacency."
DEAD Silence is a steadfastly dumb and scare-free ghost story that fails to pass off a final reel revelation as a daring twist.