< French: literally, allow to pass
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He carried a laissez-passer from the Eritrean government, allowing him a one-time entry into the country.
From New York Times ● Aug. 31, 2016
In a joint letter to the foreign ministers of six Balkan countries, seen by Reuters, de Maiziere and Steinmeier asked them to accept so-called "laissez-passer" documents.
From Reuters ● Oct. 23, 2015
An EU "laissez-passer" is suggested to aid procedures in home or transit countries and should become "the standard travel document for the expulsion of third-country nationals".
From Reuters ● Oct. 7, 2015
His so-called laissez-passer travel document issued by the United Nations will be given to his lawyers, who will turn it over to prosecutors, according to the filing.
From BusinessWeek ● May 19, 2011
Finally the polite officer who had been charged to dismiss us, moved to compassion at our plight, offered to give us a laissez-passer back to Paris.
From Fighting France, from Dunkerque to Belfort by Wharton, Edith
On one of them was found a laissez passer in the name of Edward Seyer, of Badonviller.
From The New York Times Current History, A Monthly Magazine The European War, March 1915 by Various
I had all my papers in order—my passport, my "laissez passer," a letter from Mr. Bevan, explaining who I was and asking for "every facility" for me, and my photograph, properly stamped.
From My War Experiences in Two Continents by Salmon, Betty Keays-Young
This point alone should suffice to differentiate Jefferson's system from physiocracy, since the Physiocrats had adopted as their motto the famous laissez faire laissez passer and were certainly in favor of free trade.
From Thomas Jefferson The Apostle of Americanism by Chinard, Gilbert
Breaking with the traditions of the old régime, they take for their motto "laissez faire, laissez passer".
From The Stages in the Social History of Capitalism by Pirenne, Henri
The famous axiom, laissez faire, and laissez passer, the subversive tendencies of which people affect to condemn, was not invented by Quesnay.
From Principles Of Political Economy by Lalor, John J. (John Joseph)
Her hands were steady; she was even smiling as she produced two neat little packets that, on being unfolded, proved to have all the air of permits, laissez-passers, and police cards.
From The Firefly of France by Angellotti, Marion Polk
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
