passport Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun any authorization to pass or go somewhere
    pass.
    • the pass to visit had a strict time limit
  2. noun a document issued by a country to a citizen allowing that person to travel abroad and re-enter the home country
  3. noun any quality or characteristic that gains a person a favorable reception or acceptance or admission
    recommendation.
    • her pleasant personality is already a recommendation
    • his wealth was not a passport into the exclusive circles of society

WordNet

Pass"port noun
Etymology
F. passeport, orig., a permission to leave a port or to sail into it; passer to pass + port a port, harbor. See Pass, and Port a harbor.
Definitions
  1. Permission to pass; a document given by the competent officer of a state, permitting the person therein named to pass or travel from place to place, without molestation, by land or by water.
    Caution in granting passports to Ireland. Clarendon.
  2. A document carried by neutral merchant vessels in time of war, to certify their nationality and protect them from belligerents; a sea letter.
  3. A license granted in time of war for the removal of persons and effects from a hostile country; a safe-conduct. Burrill.
  4. Figuratively: Anything which secures advancement and general acceptance. Sir P. Sidney.
    His passport is his innocence and grace. Dryden.

Webster 1913