pass off

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

1. (intransitive) To happen.

   The millennium passed off without any disasters.

2. (transitive) To give something (to someone).
   • 2015. Off the Rim. Sonya Spreen Bates.

     He turned and passed it off to number 23, who dribbled a couple of times and passed it to number 61.

3. To abate, to cease gradually.
   • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 55”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

     I have had a few aches and pains lately and a little fever, but that's nothing; it will pass off.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 16”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     I know, too, that ever since he lost his leg last voyage by that accursed whale, he’s been a kind of moody—desperate moody, and savage sometimes; but that will all pass off.

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