Dictionary.net

v. 1. In practice. To utter or pronounce; as when the court passes sentence upon a prisoner. Also to proceed; to be rendered or given; as when judgment is said to pass for the plaintiff in a suit. 2. In legislative parlance, a bill or resolution is said to puss when it is agreed to or enacted by the house, or when the body has sanctioned its adoption by the requisite majority of votes; in the same circumstances, the body is said to pass the bill or motion. 3. When an auditor appointed to examine into any accounts certifies to their correctness, he is said to pass them; i. e., they pass through the examination without being detained or sent back for inaccuracy or imperfection. Brown. 4. The term also means to examine into anything and then authoritatively determine the disputed questions which it involves. In this sense a jury is said to pass upon the rights or issues In litigation before them. 5. In the language of conveyancing, the term means to move from one person to another ; to be transferred or conveyed from one owner to another; as in the phrase "the word 'heirs' will pass the fee." 6. To publish; utter; transfer; circulate; impose fraudulently. This Is the meaning of the word when the offense of passing counterfeit money or a forged paper is spoken of. "Pass," "utter," "publish," and "sell" are in some respects convertible terms, and, in a given case, "pass" may include utter, publish, and sell. The words "uttering" and "passing," used of notes, do not necessarily import that they are transferred as genuine. The words include any delivery of a note to another for value, with intent that it shall be put into circulation as money. U. S. v. Nelson, 1 Abb. (U. S.) 135, Fed. Cas. No. 15,861. Passing a paper is putting it off in payment or exchange. Uttering it is a declaration that it is good, with an intention to pass, or an offer to pass it.