Word.ws English Dictionary

passed muster

passed muster is the simple past and past participle of pass muster.

Meaning of pass muster

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To meet or exceed a particular standard.
    • To get a raise, an employee must pass muster with the boss.
  2. (idiomatic) To adequately pass a formal or informal inspection.
    • So while speaking directly to a celebrated stranger may not be possible without first passing muster with a squad of handlers and publicists, you can do the next best thing: dial the famous person's last listed phone number and talk to the lucky, star-dusted citizen who inherited it.1990 June, Max Carter, “Yoko Ono, Phone Home”, in Spy

Questions about passed muster

What is passed muster the simple past and past participle of?
Passed muster is the simple past and past participle of pass muster.

Words near passed muster in the dictionary

  1. passed in one's checks
  2. passed judgment
  3. passed master
  4. passed masters
  5. passed motion
  6. passed muster
  7. passed off
  8. passed off as
  9. passed on
  10. passed one's word
  11. passed oneself off as

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: passed muster (page history and authors); pass muster (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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