brush pass

[bruhsh pas]

noun

1. any of various methods by which a physical item is passed surreptitiously from one intelligence agent to another as they walk past each other, typically in a crowd where their movements are difficult to observe.

Word History and Origins

Origin of brush pass¹

First recorded in 1985–90

Example Sentences

The last thing he showed her was the brush pass.

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“Just working on the brush pass.”

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Then he slipped it into her pocket using a perfectly executed brush pass.

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Their weapons were the tradecraft of spies—the dead drop, the brush pass, the one-time pad—and their missions almost always had the same goal: to obtain vital information about the enemy.

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It portrays a black senior official addressing a class of new recruits and an African-American case officer doing a secret brush pass to hand off a thumb drive.

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