pass away
Formspasses away, passing away, passed away
- 1To die; a gentle, polite way of speaking of a death.
The company's founder passed away at 94, just weeks after his last visit to the factory.
The nurse called to tell us that our neighbor had passed away during the night.
Similardie
Note
Saying someone passed away softens the news of a death, which is why the phrase suits condolences, talk with the bereaved and family notices. Plain died is not rude, and in a news report or a medical record it is the clearer word; there the gentler phrase can sound evasive.
- 2To disappear or come to an end; to cease to exist.
Empires rise and pass away, but the river keeps flowing.
And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
1611, The Holy Bible, King James VersionNote
The older, wider meaning is used of times, customs and whole ways of life, and it still turns up in solemn writing. The King James Bible of 1611 shows an older grammar with it, the former things are passed away, where English now says have passed away. Because everyday speech hears the gentle word for dying first, this use sounds deliberately old.
- 3To spend something, especially time, or to waste it.
The prisoners passed away the empty hours carving small figures from bone.
Lest she pass away the flower of her age.
1611, The Holy Bible, King James VersionNote
Unlike the phrase's other uses, this one takes an object, the time or the years being spent, as in the King James Bible's lest she pass away the flower of her age. It means letting time slip by, closer to wasting it than to spending it well.
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