bypass

American  

[bahy-pas, -pahs] / ˈbaɪˌpæs, -ˌpɑs /

Or by-pass

noun

• bypasses
  plural

1. a road enabling motorists to avoid a city or other heavy traffic points or to drive around an obstruction.

2. a secondary pipe or other channel connected with a main passage, as for conducting a liquid or gas around a fixture, pipe, or appliance.

3. Electricity. shunt.

4. a surgical procedure in which a diseased or obstructed hollow organ is temporarily or permanently circumvented.

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verb (used with object)

• bypasses,
  present (3rd person singular)
• bypassed,
  past participle,  past
• bypast,
  past participle,  past
• bypassing
  present participle

1. to avoid (an obstruction, city, etc.) by following a bypass.

2. to cause (fluid or gas) to follow a secondary pipe or bypass.

3. to neglect to consult or to ignore the opinion or decision of.

   He bypassed the foreman and took his grievance straight to the owner.

bypass British  

/ ˈbaɪˌpɑːs /

noun

1. a main road built to avoid a city or other congested area

2. any system of pipes or conduits for redirecting the flow of a liquid

3. a means of redirecting the flow of a substance around an appliance through which it would otherwise pass

4. surgery

   1. the redirection of blood flow, either to avoid a diseased blood vessel or in order to perform heart surgery See coronary bypass

   2. ( as modifier )

      bypass surgery

5. electronics

   1. an electrical circuit, esp one containing a capacitor, connected in parallel around one or more components, providing an alternative path for certain frequencies

   2. ( as modifier )

      a bypass capacitor

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verb

1. to go around or avoid (a city, obstruction, problem, etc)

2. to cause (traffic, fluid, etc) to go through a bypass

3. to proceed without reference to (regulations, a superior, etc); get round; avoid

bypass Scientific  

/ bī′păs′ /

1. A passage created surgically to divert the flow of blood or other bodily fluid or to circumvent an obstructed or diseased organ.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• by-passer
  noun
• bypasser
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• bypasses
  plural

Participles

• bypassing
  present
• bypassed
  past
• bypast
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• bypass
  simple
• bypasses
  simple
• have bypassed
  perfect
• have bypast
  perfect
• has bypassed
  perfect
• has bypast
  perfect
• am bypassing
  progressive
• are bypassing
  progressive
• is bypassing
  progressive
• have been bypassing
  perfect progressive
• has been bypassing
  perfect progressive

Past

• bypassed
  simple
• bypast
  simple
• had bypassed
  perfect
• had bypast
  perfect
• was bypassing
  progressive
• were bypassing
  progressive
• had been bypassing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will bypass
  simple
• will have bypassed
  perfect
• will have bypast
  perfect
• will be bypassing
  progressive
• will have been bypassing
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of bypass

1840–50; apparently back formation from by-passage; see by (adj.), passage ¹

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Explanation

When you bypass something, you avoid it, go around it, or ignore it. You might wish you could just read the books assigned in your English class and bypass the papers and exams. You can bypass something physically, like when you bypass the busiest intersections in town during rush hour, driving on smaller streets instead. You can also bypass things figuratively: political candidates often bypass hard questions from reporters, and big businesses sometimes find ways to bypass some of the taxes they owe. As a noun, a bypass is either an alternative road or route; or a heart operation that allows blood flow when an artery is blocked.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bypass bypasses bypassed bypast bypassing

DeKloe, the Sierra Club leader, called it a “weasel tactic” intended to bypass a countywide vote.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026

Oil producers have increasingly relied on U.S.-protected tanker movements, ship-to-ship transfers outside Hormuz and pipelines that bypass the strait entirely.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

He "offered to bypass the cells", and he was told this would be a temporary fix.

From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026

The recent resumption of oil flowing through the Saudi bypass pipeline, followed by accelerating loadings at the port of Yanbu to transit the Red Sea, will unlock more exports.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026

And now a vast number of people have found a way to bypass it.

From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that Saudi Arabia had restarted its East-West pipeline after it was attacked earlier this month, restoring an alternative route for crude exports that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline, the kingdom’s only export route that bypasses Hormuz, went offline Thursday due to drones launched from Iraq.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026

But some of the pollution bypasses the plants and pours directly into the river.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026

While it may be scant consolation for those in communties around old urban motorways, bypasses like the one at Port Talbot are less likely to be built now.

From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026

She bypasses the cookware, flips through the pages.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood

Last month it emerged that a rogue OpenAI model bypassed safeguards during training and hacked an Australian government health statistics website.

From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026

It could export oil through a pipeline that bypassed the blocked Strait of Hormuz.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026

Law-enforcement searches will require a case number in order to conduct a search by the end of the year, although the system can be bypassed in an emergency, Flock said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026

But these safeguards are easily bypassed by "tuning kits" or software hacks that make them capable of running much faster, sometimes in excess of 40mph.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

This prevented the force fields from being bypassed by any magical means.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

By it all Acts bypast, and especially those of the five Jameses, not agreeing with God's Word and contrary to the Confession, and 'wherethrow divers innocents did suffer,' were abolished and extinguished for ever.

From John Knox by A. Taylor Innes

It's no mony months bypast; it was a lang courtship,—few folk kend the reason by Jenny and mysell.

From Old Mortality, Volume 2. by Sir Walter Scott

But for these dozen or twenty years bypast we have preferred a narrow beat, snugly seated on a shelty, and pad the hoof on the hill no more.

From Recreations of Christopher North, Volume I (of 2) by John Lyde Wilson

The vague apprehensions of bypast years reviving at this crisis, some neighbours had been on the outlook for a catastrophe.

From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 440 Volume 17, New Series, June 5, 1852 by William Chambers

"It allows for operations at very low altitudes -- it is controlled by a signal from space, bypassing the radio horizon and the Earth's curvature -- factors that otherwise limit ground-based remote control signals."

From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026

And with that — bypassing the building health and safety requirements — we established the ProPublica-Mountain State Spotlight Curiosity Academy.

From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026

“Trusts are a common tool for bypassing probate, but states offer other options as well,” it adds.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 27, 2026

Nobody should begrudge a fighter for accepting a life-changing world-title shot, but bypassing the traditional British, Commonwealth and European route removes learning fights.

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

I circled Alex and drew a line to Jessica, bypassing names that didn’t connect—that just floated there—incidents all by themselves.

From "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher

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Related Words

• circumvent
• ignore
• neglect
• omit
• sidestep
• skirt

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