Passover
Also called Pesach, Pesah. a Jewish festival that commemorates the exodus of the Jews from Egypt and is marked chiefly by the Seder ritual and the eating of matzoth. It begins on the 14th day of Nisan and is celebrated for eight days by Orthodox and Conservative Jews outside of Israel and for seven days by Reform Jews and Jews in Israel.
(lowercase) paschal lamb (def. 1).
Origin of Passover
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use Passover in a sentence
The sun is setting as we pass over the open mines of the tar sands.
The Pentagon disregarded the order and sent two huge planes to pass over a group of tiny uninhabited islands south-west of Japan.
U.S. Uses B-52 Bombers to Brush Back Chinese Expansion | Nico Hines | November 27, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTSeafood “is seldom well cooked” and milk puddings are “the kind of thing that one would prefer to pass over in silence.”
Menu for a Moveable Feast: 10 Famous Authors and Their Favorite Foods & Recipes | Nicole Villeneuve | October 12, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTPluto in your sign will see a near-full Moon pass over it like a magnifying lens, amping its transformative power.
The insolent tone of him was like having one's face slapped, and it didn't pass over Lyn's head by any means.
Raw Gold | Bertrand W. Sinclair
Take a millstone and grind meal: uncover thy shame, strip thy shoulder, make bare thy legs, pass over the rivers.
The Bible, Douay-Rheims Version | VariousLet his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart be given him: and let seven times pass over him.
The Bible, Douay-Rheims Version | VariousAnd the pass over the mountain ridge that would take them across the state line.
Then, why pass over the gleam of infernal joy that lights his face after the whole is over?
The Circular Study | Anna Katharine Green
British Dictionary definitions for pass over (1 of 2)
(tr, adverb) to take no notice of; disregard: they passed me over in the last round of promotions
(intr, preposition) to disregard (something bad or embarrassing): we shall pass over your former faults
British Dictionary definitions for Passover (2 of 2)
/ (ˈpɑːsˌəʊvə) /
Also called: Pesach, Pesah, Feast of the Unleavened Bread an eight-day Jewish festival beginning on Nisan 15 and celebrated in commemoration of the passing over or sparing of the Israelites in Egypt, when God smote the firstborn of the Egyptians (Exodus 12): Related adjective: paschal
another term for the Paschal Lamb
Origin of Passover
2Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for Passover (1 of 2)
The deliverance of the Israelites from the worst of the plagues of Egypt, and the annual festival kept afterward in memory of the event. Through Moses, God told the Israelites to prepare a special meal to be eaten in haste the evening before their escape from Egypt (see also Egypt) (see Exodus), with a whole roasted lamb as the main dish. The blood from the lamb was to be used to mark the Israelites' houses. That night, God would send the angel of Death to kill the firstborn males of the Egyptians (this was the worst of the plagues of Egypt), but God would see the blood on the Israelites' houses, and he would command his angel to “pass over” — to kill no one there. God told Moses that the Israelites were to repeat the meal each spring on the anniversary of their departure from Egypt. The Jews (see also Jews) keep the festival of Passover to this day.
Notes for Passover
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Other Idioms and Phrases with Passover
See pass by, def. 2.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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