passages

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of passage.

   The choir rehearsed the trickiest passages until well past midnight.

   Underground passages connected the various buildings on the campus.

   Note

   The plural mostly carries the countable senses of the singular: the passages of a text or a musical score, the passages of a path or journey, and the passages of a life told as episodes. Art critics use it too, for the tight brushwork that links objects in Cubist painting. The same spelling is also the verb form, so the passages and she passages belong to different words.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of passage.

   The trainer passages the stallion slowly down the centerline.

   The lab passages the culture every few days to keep it healthy.

   Note

   A verb form found mostly in specialist settings. In the riding arena it names the passage movement. In the laboratory a researcher passages a culture, a pathogen or stem cells through a host or medium. A rare use means making a crossing, especially by sea. Context separates it from the plural noun: a horse passages, but a book has passages.

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