pass away - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

pass away (third-person singular simple present passes away, present participle passing away, simple past and past participle passed away)

  1. (euphemistic, idiomatic) To die.
    After a long battle with cancer, the professor passed away yesterday.
    Her great grandmother passed away yesterday.
  2. (archaic, literary) To disappear; to cease to be; to be no more.
    • c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene i:
      Returne with ſpeed, time paſſeth ſwift away,
      Our life is fraile, and we may dye to day.
    • 1946 May and June, J. Alan Rannie, “The Midland of 35 Years Ago”, in Railway Magazine, page 200:
      Though the writer has striven to dwell on aspects that have passed, or are passing away, it will be apparent that many features of Midland practice have been adopted as standard for the L.M.S.R. and other railways.
  3. (obsolete) To spend; to waste.

Usually refers to death by natural causes or medical conditions.

to die (euphemistic) — see also die,‎ perish