Word.ws English Dictionary

passing the bar

passing the bar is the present participle and gerund of pass the bar.

Meaning of pass the bar

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.

Questions about passing the bar

What is passing the bar the present participle and gerund of?
Passing the bar is the present participle and gerund of pass the bar.

Words near passing the bar in the dictionary

  1. passing sentence
  2. passing shot
  3. passing shots
  4. passing show
  5. passing shows
  6. passing the bar
  7. passing the baton
  8. passing the bottle of smoke
  9. passing the buck
  10. passing the hat
  11. passing the mantle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: passing the bar (page history and authors); 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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Cite this entry: “passing the bar.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/passing_the_bar. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.