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pass off

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phrasal verb
Word Forms
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present tense
I/you/we/theypass off
he/she/itpasses off
present participlepassing off
past tensepassed off
past participlepassed off
  1. 1
    [transitive] pass someone/something off as something to make people believe that a person or thing is something else

    He put on an old blue suit, intending to pass himself off as a businessman.

    The watches are fakes, but they tried to pass them off as genuine Rolexes.

    Thesaurus entry for this meaning of  pass offThesaurus entry for this meaning of pass off
  2. 2
    [intransitive] British if an event passes off in a particular way, it happens in that way

    The protest march passed off without any serious trouble.

    Thesaurus entry for this meaning of  pass offThesaurus entry for this meaning of pass off
  3. 3
    [intransitive/transitive] same as pass (sense 8)

    He was directly in front of the goal but passed off to Scholes instead of shooting.

This is the British English definition of pass off. View American English definition of pass off.

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