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Pass off   /pæs ɔf/   Listen
Pass off

verb
1.
Be accepted as something or somebody in a false character or identity.
2.
Disregard.
3.
Cause to be circulated and accepted in a false character or identity.  "He passed himself off as a secret agent"
4.
Disappear gradually.  Synonyms: blow over, evanesce, fade, fleet, pass.
5.
Come to pass.  Synonyms: come about, fall out, go on, hap, happen, occur, pass, take place.  "The meeting took place off without an incidence" , "Nothing occurred that seemed important"
6.
Expel (gases or odors).  Synonyms: breathe, emit.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Pass off" Quotes from Famous Books



... ordeal he had just passed through. First impressions are not made on women of Cecil Tresilyan's class so easily as they are upon guileless debutantes; but they are far more important and lasting. It is useless attempting to pass off counterfeit coin on those expert money-changers; but they value the pure gold all the more when it rings sharp and true. It is always so with those who have once been Queens of Beauty. A certain imperial dignity ...
— Sword and Gown - A Novel • George A. Lawrence

... dissatisfied with her maid. Strange; she had nothing to say against her, but the sight of the girl annoyed her, she could hardly endure to have her about the place. It all arose, no doubt, from Inger's state of mind; she had been heavy and religious all that winter, and it would not pass off. "Want to leave, do you? Why, then, well and good," said Inger. It was a blessing, the fulfilment of nightly prayers. Two grown women they were already, what did they want with this Jensine, fresh as could ...
— Growth of the Soil • Knut Hamsun

... Jeremy said after a little. Still the other kept silent. His face darkened: by God, if Barzil hadn't a decent word for the fact that Gerrit was seven months overdue, perhaps lost, this was not a house for him. "I say that we've had nothing from my son since he lay in the Lye-ee-Moon Pass off ...
— Java Head • Joseph Hergesheimer

... contretemps we had had were the doing of Lady Ver. "You need not answer, dear," she said. "I know Ianthe. She is in love with Robert herself; she can't help it; she means no harm, but she often gets these attacks, and they pass off. I think she is ...
— Red Hair • Elinor Glyn

... Androvsky, why should she mind? Antagonism to the priesthood was certainly not a mental condition to be fostered, but a prejudice to be broken down. But she had wished—she still wished with ardour—that Androvsky's first visit to the garden should be a happy one, should pass off delightfully. She had a dawning instinct to make things smooth for him. Surely they had been rough in the past, rougher even than for herself. And she wondered for an instant whether he had come to Beni-Mora, as she had ...
— The Garden Of Allah • Robert Hichens

... Brown was in command of the Abraham, with a sufficient crew, and Betts sent him to windward, outside of everything, to look after the enemy. It was thought desirable not only to see Waally well clear of the group, but to force him to pass off to the northward, in order that he might not again approach the Reef, as well as to give him so much annoyance on his retreat, as to sicken him of these expeditions for the future. For such a service the schooner was much ...
— The Crater • James Fenimore Cooper

... boy," said Du Bruel, a former chief of a division, who had just retired on a pension, "he is only sixteen; his mother dotes on him; but I shouldn't listen to his choosing a profession at his age,—a mere fancy, a notion that may pass off. In my opinion, boys should be ...
— The Two Brothers • Honore de Balzac

... the doctor. "I wish we could have had some lessons first. But use is second nature, and I suppose this weary, aching sensation of being waved about in the air will soon pass off. But I say, ...
— In the Mahdi's Grasp • George Manville Fenn

... vs. {{Pascal}}, {C} vs. FORTRAN, etc., ad nauseam. The characteristic that distinguishes holy wars from normal technical disputes is that in a holy war most of the participants spend their time trying to pass off personal value choices and cultural attachments as objective technical ...
— The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0

... of existence without care; but grief, like every other passion, must have its course, and, as the spring which gushes with violence from the rock, by degrees dwindles into a rivulet; so it must be let to pass off gradually until it becomes a moderate feeling, and at length is lost in the ...
— The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan • James Morier

... jes' the things we shouldn't recollec'; 180 We'd ough' to ha' thought aforehan', though, o' thet good rule o' Crockett's, For 't 's tiresome cairin' cotton-bales an' niggers in your pockets, Ner 'tain't quite hendy to pass off one o' your six-foot Guineas An' git your halves an' quarters back in gals an' pickaninnies: Wal, 'tain't quite all a feller'd ax, but then ther's this to say, It's on'y jest among ourselves thet we expec' to pay; Our system would ha' caird us thru in any Bible ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell

... man, replenished quite as fast as it was washed away, but that after man had put his plow into it and had taken off the protective mat of vegetation, he unconsciously despoiled the accumulation of ages. "In a plowed field, an hour's torrential rain may wash off to the sea more than would pass off in a thousand years in the slow process of erosion which the natural state of the earth permits." He also shows that the constant croppings of the soil rob it of nitrogen, phosphorus, and other elements faster than Nature restores them. The problem ...
— How to Live - Rules for Healthful Living Based on Modern Science • Irving Fisher and Eugene Fisk

... wherever thou rov'st; May life be for thee one summer's day, And all that thou wishest and all that thou lov'st Come smiling around thy sunny way! If sorrow e'er this calm should break, May even thy tears pass off so lightly, Like spring-showers, they'll only make The smiles, that follow shine ...
— The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore • Thomas Moore et al

... me," pursued Jack; "you'll have proper attendants when you are installed in the palace. Remember what we agreed upon last night; we are to pass off as your two sons, under the names of Yakoob ...
— Jack Harkaway's Boy Tinker Among The Turks - Book Number Fifteen in the Jack Harkaway Series • Bracebridge Hemyng

... replied the master; "do you see this trembling?" and he showed us his hands. "This is a bad sign. It seized on me three years ago, while I was still teaching school. At first I paid no attention to it; I thought it would pass off. But instead of that, it stayed and kept on increasing. A day came when I could no longer write. Ah! that day on which I, for the first time, made a blot on the copy-book of one of my scholars was a stab in the heart for me, my dear sir. I did drag on for a while longer; but ...
— Cuore (Heart) - An Italian Schoolboy's Journal • Edmondo De Amicis

... should be thoroughly acquainted with the intricate science of morals, and the metaphysical, as well as the more open, operations of the mind. If his knowledge is not deep and clear, his love of the good may only lead him into error; and he may pass off the prejudices of a susceptible heart for the precepts of virtue. Would to God that people would think it necessary to be instructed before they attempt to instruct. 'Dire simplement que la vertu est vertu parce qu'elle ...
— Pelham, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... hysteria, or rheumatism. It may also be due to poisoning of nervous matter with opium, lead, arsenic, or mercury; or to the retention of poisonous substances which are generated in the living body and which should pass off through the excretory organs, as the elements of the ...
— The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English • R. V. Pierce

... addressed to Nathaniel. I heard him close the door a moment afterwards, and Nathaniel crept back into the kitchen. I woke rather tired the next day, and owned he was right, for I found my duties somewhat irksome that morning. The feeling did not pass off, and I actually discovered that I was dreading my visit to Phoebe, only of course I scouted ...
— Uncle Max • Rosa Nouchette Carey

... will have nothing but fifth acts; and seem to skip, as unworthy, all the circumstances leading to them. This, however, is part of the scheme—the bloated, unnatural, stilted, spouting, sham sublime, that our teachers have believed and tried to pass off as real, and which your humble servant and other antihumbuggists should heartily, according to the strength that is in them, endeavor to pull down. What, for instance, could Monsieur Lafond care about the ...
— The Paris Sketch Book Of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh • William Makepeace Thackeray

... proved, were exciting matters to Lady Blandish. She was rebuked for certain little rebellious fancies concerning him that had come across her enslaved mind from time to time. For was he not almost a prophet? It distressed the sentimental lady that a love like Richard's could pass off in mere smoke, and words such as she had heard him speak in Abbey-wood resolve to emptiness. Nay, it humiliated her personally, and the baronet's shrewd prognostication humiliated her. For how should he know, and dare to say, that love was a thing ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... none of us recognise the great part that is played in life by eating and drinking. The appetite is so imperious that we can stomach the least interesting viands, and pass off a dinner-hour thankfully enough on bread and water; just as there are men who must read something, if it were only "Bradshaw's Guide." But there is a romance about the matter after all. Probably the table has more devotees than love; and I am sure that food is much more generally entertaining ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition - Vol. 1 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... more durable than those of the thinner; all sweet wines, as Canary, abound with a glutinous nutritious substance; whilst the others are not nutrimental, or only accidentally so by strengthening the organs employed in digestion: sweet wines in general do not pass off freely by urine, and heat the constitution more than an equal quantity of any other, though containing full as much spirit: red port, and most of the red wines, have an astringent quality, by which they strengthen ...
— The Botanist's Companion, Vol. II • William Salisbury

... they will, because I will see to it that they do not taste much food tomorrow. We will lock the door. I will go down to Prague. They say it is but little harmed, and I have a sister there. I will give the smaller child to her. I have a fancy for the light one myself, and they are too unlike to pass off for sisters." ...
— The Boy Scouts in Front of Warsaw • Colonel George Durston

... a piece of pleasantry, sir. So I think it will pass off much better if you don't allow the students to see that they ...
— The High School Pitcher - Dick & Co. on the Gridley Diamond • H. Irving Hancock

... music every now and then, but it was in a half-hearted and absent-minded fashion. To make matters worse, we had a national vocal festival inflicted upon us, during which I was obliged to face all kinds of demands; matters did not always pass off without unpleasantness, as amongst others I had to decline to see Franz Lachner, who had been specially engaged for the festival, and did not return his call. Tausig certainly delighted us by carolling Lachner's 'Old German Battle Song' in ...
— My Life, Volume II • Richard Wagner

... "It will pass off; of course, it will—it must!" Horace looked into the worn, suffering young face, and a resolution took ...
— From the Valley of the Missing • Grace Miller White

... not necessarily. You must pass off more than half your hours to enable you to keep on with your class; but failure in one study will not bring that of itself, for your Greek is a four-hour course. But the matter is, of course, somewhat serious and in more ways ...
— Winning His "W" - A Story of Freshman Year at College • Everett Titsworth Tomlinson

... to work hard, work for four, for there were four to feed now. She alone maintained them. Whenever she heard people pitying her, she at once found excuses for Coupeau. Recollect! He had suffered so much; it was not surprising if his disposition had soured! But it would pass off when his health returned. And if any one hinted that Coupeau seemed all right again, that he could very well return to work, she protested: No, no; not yet! She did not want to see him take to his bed again. They would allow ...
— L'Assommoir • Emile Zola

... mountain an hundred miles to seek a vent. On your left approaches the Patowmac, in quest of a passage also. In the moment of their junction they rush together against the mountain, rend it asunder, and pass off to the sea. The first glance of this scene hurries our senses into the opinion, that this earth has been created in time, that the mountains were formed first, that the rivers began to flow afterwards, that in this place particularly they have been damned up by the Blue ridge of mountains, and ...
— Southern Literature From 1579-1895 • Louise Manly

... seminal ducts have become so weak and relaxed that the fluid passes off involuntarily with the water and is not perceived; also when straining at stool and when you have an erection. To test its escape in the urine, pass off your water in a clear glass pint bottle and let it stand twenty-four hours in a warm place; then hold up the bottle between yourself and the light, and if you discover a sediment of a white, fleecy ...
— Manhood Perfectly Restored • Unknown

... the party pass off for Miss Mordaunt in that curious dress?" I inquired, for I had less interest in carrying on a combat d'esprit with the vicious little widow than in drawing out a more complete sketch of Francis' character, though it might ...
— Major Frank • A. L. G. Bosboom-Toussaint

... Grandville, and Jules Desmarets were playing at bouillotte. Du Tillet won three thousand francs. The day began to dawn, the wax lights paled, the players joined the dancers for a last quadrille. In such houses the final scenes of a ball never pass off without some impropriety. The dignified personages have departed; the intoxication of dancing, the heat of the atmosphere, the spirits concealed in the most innocent drinks, have mellowed the angularities of the old women, who good-naturedly join ...
— Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau • Honore de Balzac

... 'It will pass off,' he said. 'She has too much sense and principle to encourage him, and if you can get her out of Bayford for a few years he will be glad to ...
— The Young Step-Mother • Charlotte M. Yonge

... those eyes. I'm filled with surprise Taxidermists should pass Off on you such poor glass; So unnatural they seem They'd make Audubon scream, And John Burroughs laugh To encounter such chaff. Do take that bird down; Have him stuffed again, Brown!" And the barber kept ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume VI. (of X.) • Various

... morning when the master and mistress of the house had departed for London, and then the first serious change, for many a year past, had stolen over the family atmosphere. When was that atmosphere to be clear again? When were the clouds of change to pass off before the returning sunshine of ...
— No Name • Wilkie Collins

... horses were worn out, and their feet injured by the rugged and stony roads. The travellers were annoyed also by frequent but brief storms, which would come hurrying over the hills, or through the mountain defiles, rage with great fury for a short time, and then pass off, leaving ...
— The Adventures of Captain Bonneville - Digested From His Journal • Washington Irving

... of which was not defined nor even made intelligible. Mr. Buchanan replied with his usual impetuosity, declining to have anything to do with Christianity except in the way of opposition, and laughing at the sentimental dilution which his young friend was attempting to pass off as the original, unadulterated article. Mr. Le Gallienne retorted with youthful self-confidence that Mr. Buchanan did not understand Christianity. Other writers then joined in the fray, and the result was the famous "Is Christianity Played ...
— Flowers of Freethought - (Second Series) • George W. Foote

... fall of 6 ins. toward its receiving end. The two troughs are inclosed in a tank or box and above and between them is a 5-in. pipe having -in. holes 3 ins. apart so arranged that the streams are directed into the troughs. The water and dirt pass off at the lower end of the troughs while the gravel is fed by the screws into a chute discharging into a bucket elevator, which in turn feeds into a storage bin. The gravel to be washed runs from 2 ins. to 1/8-in. in size; it is excavated by steam shovel and loaded into 1 cu. yd. dump ...
— Concrete Construction - Methods and Costs • Halbert P. Gillette

... four to six fluid ounces. The time between the periods is required by the uterus or womb to first restore the lining and then prepare it for the reception of the ovum. Every month one or more ova (eggs) leave the ovary, pass to the uterus and, if not impregnated, pass off with the menstrual flow. The material prepared for the reception of the ovum is used to nourish the new life if pregnancy occurs, but when it does not, this surplus passes off in the form of ...
— Herself - Talks with Women Concerning Themselves • E. B. Lowry

... it impossible to pass off his departure as a common, impersonal blow. He was too near to her to do more than repeat "Poor little Dot. ...
— The Beautiful and Damned • F. Scott Fitzgerald

... interference of the police, but not much violence and no bloodshed. The evening shut down stormy, as to the national atmosphere, and I went home to supper impressed with the belief that the morrow could not pass off quietly—a belief strengthened by the fears of Scott; which were shown in the calling out of the volunteer militia in large force,—by the tap of the drum and the challenge of the sentry, which could be heard all around Capitol Hill,—and by the knowledge that files of regulars were barracked ...
— Shoulder-Straps - A Novel of New York and the Army, 1862 • Henry Morford

... explanation. Besides the capital instance of his anonymity as regards the novels, Scott several times seemed to amuse himself in perplexing the public. There was the case of the Bridal of Triermain, which he tried by means of various careful devices to pass off as the work of a friend. But perhaps the best example appears in connection with The Fortunes of Nigel. He first designed the material of that book for a series of "private letters" purporting to have been written in the reign of James I., but when he had ...
— Sir Walter Scott as a Critic of Literature • Margaret Ball

... to do any intellectual work; I feel that it is full of ideas, yet it is impossible to get them out; I am incapable of concentrating my thoughts, of compelling them to consider a subject from all its sides and then determine its development. I do not know when this imbecile condition will pass off, perhaps it is only that I am out of practice. When a workman has left his tools behind him for a time his hand becomes clumsy; it has, so to speak, undergone a divorce from them; he must needs begin again little by little to establish that fraternity due to ...
— Honor de Balzac • Albert Keim and Louis Lumet

... felt sure that Uncle William's bilious attack, as he termed his difference with his patron, would pass off, and that he would be ready to forgive him in October. So he settled himself in the old home with a tremendous display of books and a fine appearance of studiousness, and declared he would work so hard that ...
— In Orchard Glen • Marian Keith

... and jam-puffs—and ginger beer. It looked a fine feast when it was all there, and Mrs. Cole, as she gave the final touch to it by placing a drinking glass containing two red rose-buds in the middle, felt proud of her efforts and hoped that after all the affair might pass off bravely. But alas, how easily the proudest plans fall ...
— Jeremy • Hugh Walpole

... so," said Round. "I have as yet seen none of the witnesses myself. If they are prepared to prove that they did sign two separate documents on that day, the thing must pass off." It was clear to Mr. Furnival that even Mr. Round junior would be glad that it should pass off. And then he also sat thinking. Might it not be probable that, with a little judicious exercise of their memory, those two witnesses would remember that they had signed two documents; or at any ...
— Orley Farm • Anthony Trollope

... out a glass of Spanish wine; for I feel a cold shiver running through my body. It is nothing serious—merely the effect that these early recollections have on me when I begin to narrate them. It will soon pass off. ...
— Mauprat • George Sand

... learn to amuse ourselves peaceably like other nations?" said Bob Stephens. "In France and Italy, the greatest national festivals pass off without fatal accident, or danger to any one. The fact is, in our country we have not learned how to be amused. Amusement has been made of so small account in our philosophy of life, that we are raw and unpracticed ...
— Household Papers and Stories • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... save the roes and milts; stew them in some good broth: season, to your taste, with a bundle of herbs, onions, anchovies, and white wine; and, when they are stewed enough, thicken the sauce with the yolks of five eggs. Pass off the roes, dip them in yolk of egg and flour, and fry them with some sippets of French bread; then fry a little parsley, and, when you serve up, garnish the dish with ...
— The Lady's Own Cookery Book, and New Dinner-Table Directory; • Charlotte Campbell Bury

... I could. She was seen by three of the greatest brain-doctors in England, but none of them was able to help. The only hope they gave was that the fit might pass off as suddenly as it had come. They said too that a thorough change of scene would perhaps be beneficial, and suggested Egypt; that was in October. I did not take much to the idea, I don't know why, ...
— The Ivory Child • H. Rider Haggard

... horror, and it was not until Dale had shaken him twice that his fixed, wild manner began to pass off. ...
— The Crystal Hunters - A Boy's Adventures in the Higher Alps • George Manville Fenn

... however, that the one who could fly the highest should be King. A tree-frog which was sitting among the bushes, when he heard that, cried a warning, "No, no, no! no!" because he thought that many tears would be shed because of this; but the crow said, "Caw, caw," and that all would pass off peaceably. It was now determined that on this fine morning they should at once begin to ascend, so that hereafter no one should be able to say, "I could easily have flown much higher, but the evening came on, ...
— Household Tales by Brothers Grimm • Grimm Brothers

... set out to hunt on the high lands some distance up on the N. E. side of Collins's Creek. The Clyster given the Child last evening operated very well. it is clear of fever this evening and is much better, the swelling is considerably abated and appears as if it would pass off without coming to a head. we still continue fresh poltices of onions to the swolen part. we directed the indians in what manner to treat the dieased Cheif, gave him a few dozes of flour of sulpher and Creem ...
— The Journals of Lewis and Clark • Meriwether Lewis et al

... no hurts to see to, beyond a little soreness and stiffness that will soon pass off,' said Nicholas, seating himself with some difficulty. 'But if I had fractured every limb, and still preserved my senses, you should not bandage one till you had told me what I have the right to know. Come,' said Nicholas, giving his hand to Noggs. 'You had a sister of your own, you told me once, ...
— The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby • Charles Dickens

... would be better that she should not see him until she had of her own accord mentioned his name. Her nerves were still in such a state that any surprise threw her into palpitation and alarm which did not pass off for hours. No human being could tell how great might be the shock of seeing his face; how much it might recall to her; and whether, if it recalled all, she could bear it. From the outset George believed the physicians were ...
— Saxe Holm's Stories • Helen Hunt Jackson

... fortunate or advanced position. And he would do well, if adversity should at any time overtake a Colony, and so send down the value of its stock, to avoid selling out in a panic, but to consider whether the circumstances are such that the crisis may pass off at no distant date, and confidence be restored. It should be remem- bered that there are always speculators who, at such times, endeavour to intensify a crisis, in order that prices may be forced down, and that they may be thereby enabled to acquire stocks at ...
— Everybody's Guide to Money Matters • William Cotton, F.S.A.

... minds of the inhabitants are changed, while they pass away and become external before the senses. But it is to be observed, that there are innumerable varieties of impurities, into which the lasciviousnesses of whoredoms are changed, while they pass off into their correspondences: these varieties are according to the genera and species of those lasciviousnesses, as may be seen in the following pages, where adulteries and their degrees are treated of: such impurities however do not proceed from the delights of the love of those ...
— The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugial Love • Emanuel Swedenborg

... amount of physical suffering for the deceased. One of the doctors went so far as to congratulate Mr. Dramm upon the tidiness of his handicraft. He told him that in all his experience he had never seen a hanging pass off more smoothly, and that for an amateur, Dramm had done splendidly. To this compliment Uncle Tobe replied, in his quiet and drawling mode of speech, that he had studied the whole thing out ...
— From Place to Place • Irvin S. Cobb

... by encouraging humiliating reflections, some fear of a rival carried Hazlehurst on to New York, in his new character of Jane's admirer. The first meeting was rather awkward, and Harry was obliged to call up all his good-breeding and cleverness, to make it pass off without leaving an unpleasant impression. "Ce n'est que le premier pas qui coute," however, as everybody knows. The sight of Jane's lovely face, with a brighter colour than usual, and a few half-timid and embarrassed glances from her beautiful dark eyes, ...
— Elinor Wyllys - Vol. I • Susan Fenimore Cooper

... saucers like this with her eyes'—and she drew big, round circles in the air with her forefinger—'You're not used to that sort of thing. So you fancied ... but that means nothing, Yasha ... no-o-thing at all! Drink a cup of posset at night ... it'll pass off!... Lord, succour us!' ...
— Dream Tales and Prose Poems • Ivan Turgenev

... should happen to trespass a little, which I trust I shall not, let it always be supposed that a confusion of characters may produce mistakes,—that, in the masquerades of the grand carnival of our age, whimsical adventures happen, odd things are said and pass off. If I should fail a single point in the high respect I owe to those illustrious persons, I cannot be supposed to mean the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Lauderdale of the House of Peers, but the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Lauderdale of Palace Yard,—the Dukes and Earls of Brentford. There ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. V. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... making some movement, with the intention of frightening it away; and was immediately gratified by hearing the slight rustling pass off to one side, as though ...
— The Strange Cabin on Catamount Island • Lawrence J. Leslie

... influence, compared with that evidence of sight and touch which is the foundation of Physical Science! How easily can we be talked out of our clearest views of duty! how does this or that moral precept crumble into nothing when we rudely handle it! how does the fear of sin pass off from us, as quickly as the glow of modesty dies away from the countenance! and then we say, "It is all superstition." However, after a time we look round, and then to our surprise we see, as before, the same law of duty, the same moral ...
— The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated: In Nine - Discourses Delivered to the Catholics of Dublin • John Henry Newman

... scars, which will not permanently disfigure him; and though he halts slightly as the result of a strained tendon in the calf of one of his legs, Dr. Meredith assures us that this is chiefly a nervous symptom, which will pass off presently. He says Fred is a little run down, and he advises raw eggs and milk between meals. I assume that the doctor is right, but it seems strange to me that a boy should get run down through foot-ball exercise. However, he is ...
— The Opinions of a Philosopher • Robert Grant

... was in the ranks of the general public that one found most amusement; seldom did a sale pass off undistinguished by at least one incident uniquely revealing or provocative. And for such moments Lanyard was always on the qui vive, but quietly, who knew that nothing so quickly stifles spontaneity as self-consciousness. So, if he studied his company closely, he was studious ...
— Red Masquerade • Louis Joseph Vance

... ten o'clock at night, just as she was getting in bed. This time, however, she managed to get into bed before the attack had swelled her up to any great extent. Jane, who had already retired, advised her to remain perfectly still, and perhaps the attack would pass off, but how sadly was she mistaken. Esther had only been in bed about five minutes when, to the amazement of the girls, all the bed clothing flew off and settled down in the far corner of the room. They could see them going for the lamp was burning dimly on the table. They both screamed, and ...
— The Haunted House - A True Ghost Story • Walter Hubbell

... him?" said Lasse tearfully to the cottagers' wives. "Oh dear, what shall I do?" He carried him down to their room in a sad state of mind, because the moon was waning, and it would never pass off! ...
— Pelle the Conqueror, Complete • Martin Andersen Nexo

... certain signals which may be necessary if certain eventualities occur. These need be nothing to do with you directly. But bear in mind that if I ask you or Adam to do anything, do not lose a second in the doing of it. We must try to pass off such moments with an appearance of unconcern. In all probability, nothing requiring such care will occur. The White Worm will not try force, though she has so much of it to spare. Whatever she may attempt to-day, of harm to any of us, will be in the way of secret plot. Some other time she ...
— The Lair of the White Worm • Bram Stoker

... of personal vanity. To exhibit the beauty of a young wife, or the diamonds of an old one; to be able to say the best thing that is uttered; to sport a red ribbon or a Waterloo medal in their first novelty; to carry a point with a great man, or to borrow money from a rich one, may pass off an evening very well, with those who happen to be interested in such speculations; but, these things apart, the arrantest trifler in the circle must get weary at last, and be heartily rejoiced when the conclusion of the season spares him all further reiteration ...
— The Mirror, 1828.07.05, Issue No. 321 - The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction • Various

... by this scene, added to my previous illness, from the effects of which I had not sufficiently recovered, caused a faintness; I sat down under the window, in hopes that it would pass off. It did not, however; for I fell, and lay on the turf in a state of insensibility, which must have lasted nearly half an hour. I afterwards learned from Clara, that Emily had opened the window, it being a French one, to walk out and recover herself. By the bright moon-light, she perceived ...
— Frank Mildmay • Captain Frederick Marryat

... the day would pass off very unpleasantly if any feeling of restraint remained between him and Montagu, Eric, by a strong effort, determined to 'make up with him' before starting, and went into his study for that purpose after breakfast. Directly ...
— Eric, or Little by Little • Frederic W. Farrar

... enjoy it the more, I have placed my table opposite the window, so that every time I lift my head my eyes rest on our dear country. This does not prevent me from feeling dull sometimes, especially when I am alone, but I hope this will pass off when my occupations become more regular. ...
— Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence • Louis Agassiz

... for those who are taken with fixed and incurable diseases, they use all possible ways to cherish them and to make their lives as comfortable as possible. They visit them often and take great pains to make their time pass off easily; but when any is taken with a torturing and lingering pain, so that there is no hope either of recovery or ease, the priests and magistrates come and exhort them, that, since they are now unable to go ...
— Utopia • Thomas More

... must be resisted, and regarded as a mere morbid affection of the mind at the time, arising from an approaching disease, which is not necessarily serious, and may soon pass off; which is ...
— Official Report of the Niger Valley Exploring Party • Martin Robinson Delany

... System.—Ganglionic enlargements are more conspicuous than in the Chitons. In front of the buccal mass is a median cerebral ganglion. From this pass off two pairs of cords, the pleural and pedal, in Proneomenia separate from their origin, in Neomenia united at first and diverging at a pleural ganglion. The pedal cords anteriorly form a pair of pedal ganglia united by ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 2 - "Chicago, University of" to "Chiton" • Various

... than good. Night-caps are most unwholesome and uncleanly contrivances, and should be discarded altogether. They keep the head unnaturally warm, shut out the fresh air, and shut in those natural exhalations which should be allowed to pass off, and thus weaken the hair and render it more liable to fall off. Ladies may keep their hair properly together during repose by wearing a net ...
— How To Behave: A Pocket Manual Of Republican Etiquette, And Guide To Correct Personal Habits • Samuel R Wells

... is obscure.) Indians, Zulus, for whom there are special rules. We find we can buy lead dogs, cats, lions, tigers, horses, camels, cattle, and elephants of a reasonably corresponding size, and we have also several boxes of railway porters, and some soldiers we bought in Hesse-Darmstadt that we pass off on an unsuspecting home world as policemen. But we want civilians very badly. We found a box of German from an exaggerated curse of militarism, and even the grocer wears epaulettes. This might please ...
— Floor Games; a companion volume to "Little Wars" • H. G. Wells

... However, all for a considerable time was quiet, and the ceremony was performed; little Nancy, our niece, handing the bairn upon my arm to receive its name. So, we thought, as the minister seldom made a long stay on similar occasions, that all would pass off well enough—But wait ...
— The Life of Mansie Wauch - Tailor in Dalkeith, written by himself • David Macbeth Moir

... pass off, but when? O Lord God, my Master! is it possible that thou didst love him so? why, he is an old man, Lizotchka. Well, I do not dispute that he is a good man, he does not bite; but what does that signify? we are all good people: ...
— A Nobleman's Nest • Ivan Turgenieff

... widening its realm, one undermines it. No one in the time of Plato would lave ventured to give his name to a doctrine in which the theory of ideas had no place, and one would deservedly have excited the ridicule of Greece by trying to pass off Epicurus or Zeno as a disciple of the Academy. Let us recognize, then, that if a religion or a doctrine exists which is called Christianity, it may ...
— The Kingdom of God is within you • Leo Tolstoy

... from pressure which may cause palsy (paralysis). However, that will generally pass off ...
— Manual of Military Training - Second, Revised Edition • James A. Moss

... and conscience-stricken remorse would, however, soon pass off. Some would hasten to condole with Herodias; some to sympathize with Herod. Herodias would retire to her apartments, accompanied by her high ladies, vowing fiery vengeance on the preacher—a very Jezebel, thirsting for the blood of another Elijah. ...
— John the Baptist • F. B. Meyer

... occurrence of an encounter he had particularly sought to avert. It ministered, moreover, a little to this sensibility that Miriam appeared to have come somewhat before her time. The incident promised, however, to pass off in a fine florid way. Before he knew it both the ladies had taken possession of Biddy, who looked at them with comparative coldness, tempered indeed by a faint glow of apprehension, and Miriam had ...
— The Tragic Muse • Henry James

... terribly," said he, allowing the sarcasm to pass over his head. "Your son and Miss Crown were boy and girl sweethearts, I hear,—oh, please don't be offended. Those things happen, you know,—and pass off like all of the children's diseases. Like the measles, or mumps or chicken pox. Every boy and girl has to go through that stage, you know. I remember being horribly in love with a girl in our block when I was fifteen,—and she with me. But, for the life of me, I can't remember her name now. I mean ...
— Quill's Window • George Barr McCutcheon

... he, impatiently, 'will you, too, send me back to that cold abstraction? I came to you, however presumptuous, for living, human advice to a living, human heart; and will you pass off on me that Proteus-dream the Church, which in every man's mouth has a different meaning? In one book, meaning a method of education, only it has never been carried out; in another, a system of polity,—only it has never been realised;—now a ...
— Yeast: A Problem • Charles Kingsley

... had earned by dint of her own sharpness in dealing with the world. And the local tradesmen were afraid of Rhoda. "Mrs. Bensusan's devil," they called her, and never dared to give short weight, or charge extra prices, or pass off damaged goods as new, when Rhoda was the purchaser. On the contrary, No. 9 Jersey Street was supplied with everything of the best, promptly and civilly, at ordinary market rates; for neither butcher, nor baker, nor candlestick maker, was daring enough to risk Rhoda's tongue ...
— The Silent House • Fergus Hume

... Olof calmly. "When I spoke to you last time, matters did not pass off as they should. I beg your forgiveness for that. And now I have come to ask again for ...
— The Song Of The Blood-Red Flower • Johannes Linnankoski

... my bunk I found that I was still very shaky, with a tendency to giddiness, added to which my head was aching most distressingly; but I thought it possible that these disagreeable symptoms would perhaps pass off as soon as I found myself in the open air; I therefore dressed as quickly as possible, and made my ...
— The Pirate Slaver - A Story of the West African Coast • Harry Collingwood

... that this is a real Sentiment? that this luxury of generosity, this gallant rescue of Misery—out of an old cab, is genuine feeling? It is as genuine as the virtuous oratory of Joseph Surface when he begins, "The man who," &c. &c., and wishes to pass off for a saint with his credulous, ...
— Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges • William Makepeace Thackeray

... "Mr. Tennyson has no sound pretensions to be called a great poet." Contemporary public opinion is seldom a final gauge of strength for a piece of literature. It takes the test of time. How many books we have seen come on the stage and then pass off again! Yet the books that have stayed on the stage have been kept there by public opinion expressing itself in the long run. The social influence of the King James version, creating a public taste for certain types of literature, tended ...
— The Greatest English Classic A Study of the King James Version of • Cleland Boyd McAfee

... of one ravine, and sometimes turning off nearly at right angles to the flank of another; separated from each other by precipices of tremendous depth, and communicating by one-arched bridges of surprising boldness; besides stone bridges at each re-entering angle, to let pass off the water which flows from the innumerable cascades, which fall from the summits of the mountains. Ice and snow eternal on the various pics or aiguilles (as the summits are here called) which tower above your head, and yet in the midst of these belles horreurs ...
— After Waterloo: Reminiscences of European Travel 1815-1819 • Major W. E Frye

... of all, resting on their haunches, gave the whole formation the appearance of an arch. This kind of machine is employed in contests under the walls of towns, in order that while the blows of missiles and stones fall on the slippery descent they may pass off like ...
— The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus • Ammianus Marcellinus

... know," answered Deerslayer, "but the man that passes false money, Sarpent, is as bad as he who makes it. Did you ever know a just Injin that wouldn't scorn to sell a 'coon skin for the true marten, or to pass off a mink for a beaver. I know that a few of these idols, perhaps one of them elephants, would go far towards buying Thomas Hutter's liberty, but it goes ag'in conscience to pass such counterfeit money. Perhaps no Injin tribe, ...
— The Deerslayer • James Fenimore Cooper

... portraits of Lord Byron spread over the world, there is one that surpasses all others in ugliness, which is often put up for sale, and which a mercantile spirit wishes to pass off for a good likeness; it was done by an American, Mr. West,—an excellent man, but a very bad painter. This portrait, which America requested to have taken, and which Lord Byron consented to sit for, was begun ...
— My Recollections of Lord Byron • Teresa Guiccioli

... St. Eustache Church, watching carefully to ascertain the popular feeling. The people were in an excited mood, but, like a swarm of frightened bees, seemed not to know at what point to concentrate; and it was very evident that if leaders of the people were not provided all this agitation would pass off in idle buzzing. ...
— Twenty Years After • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... other personages in the Pilgrim's Progress come and go; they all ascend the stage for a longer or shorter time, and then pass off the stage and so pass out of our sight; but Christian in the First Part, and Christiana in the Second Part, are never for a single moment out of our sight. And, accordingly, we have had repeated occasion and opportunity to learn many excellent lessons from the chief pilgrim's upward walk and heavenly ...
— Bunyan Characters (Second Series) • Alexander Whyte

... of Count Romanzoff. He has not sufficient command of his temper, is quick, irritable, sometimes punctilious, occasionally indiscreet in his discourse, and tainted with Royalist and Bourbon prejudices. But he has strong sentiments of honor, justice, truth, and even liberty. His flurries of temper pass off as quickly as they rise. He is neither profound nor sublime nor brilliant; but a man of strong and good feelings, with the experience of many vicissitudes of fortune, a good but common understanding, and good intentions biassed by party feelings, occasional ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... waiter brings in a tea-tray loaded with cards of callers, and the explanation of the initials having had reference to people, many of whom were present at the performance, tended much to make the thing pass off with great eclat. It seems that a custom prevails there to a punctilious extent, of all the inhabitants of a certain grade calling upon ...
— Picturesque Quebec • James MacPherson Le Moine

... Must say, though, you gave me a twist when I came on you suddenly. Maybe it's your epigastric nerve; maybe it's your liver and will pass off, but I'd knock off work for a day or two ...
— The Veiled Lady - and Other Men and Women • F. Hopkinson Smith

... allegiance to the Archbishop of Mayence, and here am I, after destroying the fief of one Archbishop, securely snared in the fief of another. I fear their Lordships' next meeting with me will not pass off so amicably as ...
— The Sword Maker • Robert Barr

... preacher. Under these circumstances, it would seem that there was nothing to be desired to make him happy. But he was not so, though he kept an unruffled countenance. He felt the repression that his position put upon him. He prayed that with time it might pass off, but this prayer was not answered. There were times when, within his secret closet, the contemplation of the dead level of his life, as it spread out before him, drove him ...
— The Uncalled - A Novel • Paul Laurence Dunbar

... said Dangle, "I don't altogether understand Yorke. He tries to pass off as fair, and just, and all that sort of thing; but one can't be sure he's not playing a ...
— The Cock-House at Fellsgarth • Talbot Baines Reed

... must be made, by means of grating-hatches, for sufficient ventilation in action, to supply the magazine-men with fresh air, and allow the dampness caused by perspiration to pass off; and fan-blowers are to be fitted to increase the supply of fresh air, and assist the ventilation. The magazine should be opened and aired, at least once a fortnight, for a few hours, on ...
— Ordnance Instructions for the United States Navy. - 1866. Fourth edition. • Bureau of Ordnance, USN

... We know the intricacies of London street navigation, and Islington, Blackfriars, Camden Town, Hackney, the "Surrey Side," Piccadilly, Regent and Oxford streets, the Strand and Fleet street, are all mapped out distinctly in our mind's eye. We are skilled in English money, and no longer pass off half crowns for two-shilling ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - Vol. XI, No. 27, June, 1873 • Various

... the left. These gases first enter a vault, where they intermingle and cool down somewhat; thence they ascend through the openings of the brick grating, and through the mass of peat to the top of the chamber. On their way they become charged with vapor, and falling, pass off through the chimney, as is indicated by the arrows. The draught is regulated by the damper on the top of the chimney. To manage the fire, so that on the one hand the chimney is sufficiently heated to create a draught, ...
— Peat and its Uses as Fertilizer and Fuel • Samuel William Johnson

... would be there to see him standing in the pillory. What a crowd there would be. "Ha," he cried, "the blood is rushing to my head, and I shall go mad. I believe I am crazy already; oh, I wish I were free, then all these sensations would pass off." This is just what he ought to have said at first. The moment he had expressed the thought his head was free. He started back, quite bewildered with the fright which the goloshes of Fortune had ...
— Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen • Hans Christian Andersen

... or drab coat, like the incog. of the royal family, to mix with their betters and sport their persons in the drive of fashion: some of the monsters, too, have the impudence of bowing to ladies whom they do not know, merely to give them an air, or pass off their customers for their acquaintance: its very distressing. There!" continued she, "there goes my plumassier, with gilt spurs like a field-officer, and riding as importantly as if he were one of the Lords of the Treasury; or—ah! there, again, is my banker's clerk, so stiff ...
— Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II. • Pierce Egan

... up in a trice," he observed, by way of saying something. "The little weakness will soon pass off; and then you must drink port wine—a pipe, if you can—and eat game and oysters. I'll get them for you, if they are to be had anywhere. Bless me! we'll make you as strong as Samson before we're ...
— Shirley • Charlotte Bronte

... I was seized with a nervous trouble, something like St. Vitus' Dance. As I grew older it did not pass off, but settled into a disease of the muscles. It became a terrible affliction. It was usually under my control, but I could not endure protracted work of any kind, or unusual fatigue; I had consulted, in ...
— The Wonders of Prayer - A Record of Well Authenticated and Wonderful Answers to Prayer • Various

... and now he was the man whose footsteps, it seemed to her, her ears could single unerringly in the tramp of a crowd. It was, indeed, a fabulous thing. In the half light of her over-heated shelter she let an irresolute, frightened smile pass off her lips before she, ...
— The Rescue • Joseph Conrad

... 'I was thinking of Helen and Beauclerc,' Clarendon said, 'So was I; but there is no use in thinking of it; we can do no good.'—'Then,' I said, 'suppose, Clarendon—only suppose that Helen, without saying any thing, were to let this matter pass off with Beauclerc?'—Clarendon answered, 'It would not pass off with Beauclerc.'—'But,' said I, 'I do not mean without any explanation at all. Only suppose that Helen did not enter into any particulars, do not you think, Clarendon, that things would go on well enough?'—'No,' ...
— Helen • Maria Edgeworth

... realized now that he had never felt right, felt happy about that bill. Yet although his bonds were now to be broken, and he was to be free at last, the shattering of his fetters was not to be a pleasant process. He knew Mr. Carter too well to deceive himself into imagining that the affair would pass off lightly. Mr. Carter was a proud man. He would not like having his gift hurled back into his face. Nor would he enjoy being beaten. Greater than any value he would set on the ownership of the March Hare would loom the consciousness ...
— Paul and the Printing Press • Sara Ware Bassett

... near it that sunset splendour did not pass off and it was indeed like no earthly village; then people came out from the houses to gaze at me, and they too were like people glorified with the sunset light and their faces shone as they advanced hurriedly to meet me, pointing with their hands and talking and laughing excitedly ...
— A Traveller in Little Things • W. H. Hudson

... the fire upon a little hay, straw, fodder, or a bearskin, whichever was to be had, with man, wife, and children, like dogs and cats; and happy is he who gets the berth nearest the fire. Nothing would make it pass off tolerably but a good reward. A doubloon is my constant gain every day that the weather will permit of my going out, and sometimes six pistoles." He was evidently a thrifty lad, and honestly pleased with honest earnings. He ...
— George Washington, Vol. I • Henry Cabot Lodge

... photograph) made our breakfast this morning 'pass off,' like the better sort of breakfasts in Deerbrook,[120] in which people seemed to have come into the world chiefly to eat breakfast in every possible variety ...
— A Letter Book - Selected with an Introduction on the History and Art of Letter-Writing • George Saintsbury

... Pliny's literary style. One evening Pliny returned home from the funeral of the wife of a friend and sat down to write that friend a note of gratitude for having so arranged the gladiatorial spectacle as to make the funeral service pass off quite pleasantly. For that age of intellect was also an age of blood; the era of art and luxury was also an era of cruelty and crime. The intellect lent a shining luster to the era of Augustus, but because it was intellect only ...
— The Investment of Influence - A Study of Social Sympathy and Service • Newell Dwight Hillis

... that it is necessary," I replied. "I think, if we let him alone, it will pass off in the course ...
— Off-Hand Sketches - a Little Dashed with Humor • T. S. Arthur

... (or it may be placed directly on the surface) which is lined with boards, from eighteen inches to two feet in depth, when it is beaten down with a fork and trodden well together. The sashes are now put on and kept there until heat is developed. The first intense heat must be allowed to pass off, which will be in about three days after the high temperature is reached. Now throw on six or eight inches of fine soil, in which mix well rotted manure, free from all straw, or rake in, thoroughly, ...
— Cabbages and Cauliflowers: How to Grow Them • James John Howard Gregory

... his fancy, was somewhat of a silent and morose animal, and, as little Scoutbush confided to Mellot, there was no getting a rise out of him. All which Lucia saw as keenly as any one, and tried to pass off by chattering nervously and fussily for him, as well as for herself; whereby she only made him the more cross, for he could not the least understand her argument—"Why, my dear, if you don't talk to ...
— Two Years Ago, Volume II. • Charles Kingsley

... hundreds of men like him; for ever striving to swell beyond their natural size, to strain beyond their natural strength, to step beyond their natural stride. Search, search within your own waistcoats, dear brethren—YOU know in your hearts, which of your ordinaire qualities you would pass off, and fain consider as first-rate port. And why not you yourself, Mr. Preacher? says the congregation. Dearly beloved, neither in or out of this pulpit do I profess to be bigger, or cleverer, or wiser, ...
— Roundabout Papers • William Makepeace Thackeray

... cannot pass off checks for human sympathy in settlement of our brotherhood arrears. The Church, which once stood by indifferent, or uncomprehending, is hastening to enter the life of the people. I have told of how, in the memory of men yet living, one ...
— The Battle with the Slum • Jacob A. Riis

... indeed! But, sir, my duty consists in speaking to the public, in turning a compliment, in making things pass off pleasantly, as the saying is; and, without boasting, I flatter myself that I ...
— Monsieur Lecoq • Emile Gaboriau

... must pass off. And in spite of the general gladness and gratulation, probably a more lonely, homesick party could not have been easily found than the Dexter family in their ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 86, December, 1864 • Various

... "the stridulation or song in the Acridiidae is produced by friction of the hind legs against portions of the wings or wing-covers," but that is just the sort of statement which the scientific man thinks he can pass off on the public with impunity. Considering that stridulation takes place about every ten seconds, I calculate that the grasshopper must require a new set of wings every ten days. It would be more in ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 159, July 21, 1920 • Various



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