King James Bible Dictionary

Denotes in Joshua 22:11, as is generally understood, the place where the children of Israel passed over Jordan. The words "the passage of" are, however, more correctly rendered "by the side of," or "at the other side of," thus designating the position of the great altar erected by the eastern tribes on their return home. This word also designates the fords of the Jordan to the south of the Sea of Galilee (Judges 12:5, 6), and a pass or rocky defile (1 Samuel 13:23; 14:4). "Passages" in Jeremiah 22:20 is in the Revised Version more correctly "Abarim" (q.v.), a proper name.

Used in the plural, (Jeremiah 22:20) probably to denote the mountain region of Abarim on the east side of Jordan. It also denotes a river ford or mountain gorge or pass.

P'ASSAGE, noun

1. The act of passing or moving by land or water, or through the air or other substance; as the passage of a man or a carriage; the passage of a ship or a fowl; the passage of light or a meteor; the passage of fluids through the pores of the body, or from the glands. Clouds intercept the passage of solar rays.

2. The time of passing from one place to another. What passage had you? We had a passage of twenty five days to Havre de Grace, and of thirty eight days from England.

3. Road; way; avenue; a place where men or things may pass or be conveyed.

And with his pointed dart,

Explores the nearest passage to this heart.

4. Entrance or exit.

What! are my doors opposed against my passage?

5. Right of passing; as, to engage a passage on board a ship bound to India.

6. Occurrence; event; incident; that which happens; as a remarkable passage in the life of Newton. [See the Spanish verb, supra. This sense is obsolescent.]

7. A passing away; decay. [Little used.]

8. Intellectual admittance; mental reception.

Among whom I expect this treatise will have a fairer passage than among those deeply imbued with other principles.

9. Manner of being conducted; management.

On consideration of the conduct and passage of affairs in former times--

10. Part of a book or writing; a single clause, place or part of indefinite extent.

How commentators each dark passage shun.

11. Enactment; the act of carrying through all the regular forms necessary to give validity; as the passage of a law, or of a bill into a law, by a legislative body.

Bird of passage a fowl that passes at certain seasons from one climate to another, as in autumn to the south to avoid the winter's cold, and in spring to the north for breeding. Hence the phrase is sometimes applied to a man who has no fixed residence.

P'ASSAGER, noun A traveler or voyager; one who passes or journeys on foot, in a vehicle, or in a ship or boat. This word is usually written corruptly passenger, and the first vowel is often short.