laissez-passer
noun
a permit; pass, especially one issued in lieu of a passport.
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laissez-passer
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laissez passer
laissez passernouna document granting unrestricted access or movement to its holder
laissez-passer
American
[les-ey-pa-sey, le-sey-pah-sey]
/ ˈlɛs eɪ pæˈseɪ, lɛ seɪ pɑˈseɪ /
noun
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laissez-passers,
plural
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laissez-passer
plural
laissez passer
British
/ lese pase /
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of laissez-passer
< French: literally, allow to pass
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
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
Unsuccessful asylum-seekers often cannot be sent back to their home countries if they do not have passports, and getting laissez-passer paperwork recognized often takes a long time.
From Reuters ● Oct. 23, 2015
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
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
A few words sufficed; the Councillor rang a bell on the table, and when his secretary appeared, ordered him to make out a laissez-passer for Lieutenant Smith for all the Custom Houses of the Empire.
From Round the World in Seven Days by Herbert Strang
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 Gilbert Chinard
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 Betty Keays-Young Salmon
Let human institutions conform to nature; enlarge the bounds of freedom; give play to the spirit of individualism; diminish the interference of government—"laissez faire, laissez passer."
From A History of French Literature Short Histories of the Literatures of the World: II. by Edmund Gosse
He was always decent to Americans, and he was shocked when he found that his laissez passer, which I obtained from him for the Hon. D. I.
From Ten Years Near the German Frontier A Retrospect and a Warning by Maurice Francis Egan
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
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 Marion Polk Angellotti
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.
