Word.ws English Dictionary

pass the time of day

pass the time of day verb: to exchange any ordinary greeting of civility.

Verb

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

  1. To exchange any ordinary greeting of civility.
    • He found a great many things to see, such as dandelions, and ants, and traction engines, and bolting horses, and furniture being removed, besides being kept busy raising his hat, and passing the time of day with people on the road, for he was a very well-bred young fellow, polite in his manners...1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 17

Forms of pass the time of day

third-person singular presentpasses the time of day
present participlepassing the time of day
past participlepassed the time of day
pastpassed the time of day

Questions about pass the time of day

What does pass the time of day mean?
Pass the time of day means to exchange any ordinary greeting of civility.
What part of speech is pass the time of day?
Pass the time of day is a verb.
What is the past tense of pass the time of day?
The past tense of pass the time of day is passed the time of day.

Words near pass the time of day in the dictionary

  1. pass the pikes
  2. pass the river
  3. pass the sponge across the slate
  4. pass the sponge over the slate
  5. pass the time
  6. pass the time of day
  7. pass the torch
  8. pass the trash
  9. pass the wet sponge across the slate
  10. pass the wet sponge over the slate
  11. pass through

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pass the time of day (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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