pass away

Idioms  

1. Also,. Die, as in He passed away last week, or After Grandma passes on we'll sell the land, or I hear he's about to pass over. All these terms are euphemisms for dying, although the verb pass alone as well as pass away have been used in the sense of “pass out of existence, die” since the 1300s. The two variants—adding on [c. 1800] and over [c. 1900]—allude to moving to some other-worldly realm.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pass away

Nick Hitchon died from cancer in 2023, becoming the second member of the cast to pass away after Lynn Johnson 10 years earlier.

From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026

They’re also in line to inherit a great deal of money in the coming years as older generations pass away, he noted.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 6, 2026

His mother, he says, deals with self-esteem issues because her identity has for so long been reduced to being a caretaker for elderly relatives, who, inevitably, pass away — leaving her feeling like a failure.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026

"We look at all of the data we have in our telephones, CCTV, the audio. There's that wealth of documentary evidence. And of course, when you go back such a long time, witnesses pass away."

From BBC ● May 26, 2026

‘You have chosen the Evening; but my love is given to the Morning. And my heart forebodes that soon it will pass away for ever.’

From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien

Related Words

• die
• expire
• perish
• succumb