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

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

When his children pass away, he continues, maybe they’ll be buried on the moon, or on Mars.

From Slate ● May 8, 2026

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 13, 2026

Though we were grateful to the doctor for the advance warning, learning that Jimmie was going to pass away was a devastating blow to both of us.

From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson

Related Words

• die
• expire
• perish
• succumb