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

I say people died when they, uh, pass away.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 13, 2026

If you pass away before claiming Social Security, your wife gets 100% of your FRA amount, not the amount you would have gotten by delaying to 69½ or 70.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 13, 2026

"Mummy had been sick for a long time but nobody expected her to pass away and it all happened really quick," she said.

From BBC • Feb. 26, 2026

Among Park’s top concerns when he left the United States in June was that his mother, who is 86 and struggling with dementia, would pass away while he couldn’t return to the county.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 12, 2025

He was the first of his siblings to pass away.

From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson

Related Words

• die
• expire
• perish
• succumb