Word.ws English Dictionary

pass the bar

pass the bar verb: to be formally referred for trial from a lower court to a higher one.

Verb

pass the bar (third-person singular simple present passes the bar, present participle passing the bar, simple past and past participle passed the bar)

  1. To be formally referred for trial from a lower court to a higher one.
    • This matter has passed the bar.
  2. To achieve a successful outcome on the bar examination: to pass the test (make the grade) to become a licensed lawyer.
    • My cousin just passed the bar.
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see pass, the, bar.
    • His truck can pass anything but a gas station, and he can barely pass the bar on his way to report to his probation officer.

Forms of pass the bar

third-person singular presentpasses the bar
present participlepassing the bar
past participlepassed the bar
pastpassed the bar

Questions about pass the bar

What does pass the bar mean?
Pass the bar means to be formally referred for trial from a lower court to a higher one.
What part of speech is pass the bar?
Pass the bar is a verb.
What is the past tense of pass the bar?
The past tense of pass the bar is passed the bar.

Words near pass the bar in the dictionary

  1. pass rushes
  2. pass sentence
  3. pass shot
  4. pass shots
  5. pass stool
  6. pass the bar
  7. pass the baton
  8. pass the book
  9. pass the bottle of smoke
  10. pass the buck
  11. pass the hat

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pass the bar (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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