to pass through
255
2.7
- phrasal verb
- /pæs θru/
:
pasar por
- - No, I'm just passing through.
- pass through a town
- pass through a city
- a road passes through
But what about just feeling joy when it passes through your day in small ways?
- But what about just feeling joy when it passes through your day in small ways?
- He'd say why do the main roads not pass through the town, through the slums?
- Are you staying or you just passing through or what's your story?
- They're all like clouds passing through the sky.
- But I was traveling for him, and I passed through this little town in Mississippi.
- Roam baby mice passing through like bison in the night.
- And so you can ask, have we passed through some other event horizon?
Examples
-
Many travelers pass through the airport on their way to other destinations.
-
We all pass through this place eventually.
-
Are you staying or you just passing through or what's your story?
-
- So you ladies staying the night, or y'all just passing through?
-
Wherever she went, in whatever villages and towns she passed through, she performed miracles.
Fiction book (1991) -
Would you please have your passports available for inspection... ...as you pass through the departure gate?
-
I'm just passing through.
-
Going through the airlock, they passed through the p-curtain leading into the transparent CM dome.
Fiction book (1990) -
I observed the gleam enter Dickens's countenance as soon as we passed through the stage door.
Fiction book (1990) -
You can stand up on the boulevard and see Spain and Gibraltar and see all sorts of people passing through, but it is a Moroccan city.
Synonyms
80
2.1
Pass from one point to another during a journey or process
72
3.7
Visit a place for a short time while on the way somewhere
58
4.2
Pass through something so it is not noticed or stopped
49
3.8
To move through something from one side to the other
3
4.2
To move people or goods through a place on the way to another
1
3.9
Stop at a place for a short time while going somewhere else
Antonyms
How Long
463
2.5
∞
1.0
- Informal
494
2.5
255
2.7
- Informal
3
3.6
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to move across or penetrate' is directly derived from 'pass' (to move or go beyond) combined with 'through' (moving from one side to the other); this motion/composition is literal and follows a common English verb + preposition pattern. Cross-linguistically and contextually (e.g., troops moving across lines) this construction is transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Pass through brings to mind something moving straight across a place without stopping, like a parade rolling down a street or a traveler walking through a village without staying. So it means 'to travel through a place without staying for long'.