All 12 Uses of
passage
in
Gulliver's Travels
- This volume would have been at least twice as large, if I had not made bold to strike out innumerable passages relating to the winds and tides, as well as to the variations and bearings in the several voyages, together with the minute descriptions of the management of the ship in storms, in the style of sailors; likewise the account of longitudes and latitudes; wherein I have reason to apprehend, that Mr. Gulliver may be a little dissatisfied.
Chpt Intr. (definition 1)passages = short parts of longer written works
- Likewise in the account of the academy of projectors, and several passages of my discourse to my master Houyhnhnm, you have either omitted some material circumstances, or minced or changed them in such a manner, that I do hardly know my own work.
Chpt Intr. (definition 1)
- But the whole scene of this voyage made so strong an impression on my mind, and is so deeply fixed in my memory, that, in committing it to paper I did not omit one material circumstance: however, upon a strict review, I blotted out several passages.
Chpt 2 (definition 1)
- To confirm what I have now said, and further to show the miserable effects of a confined education, I shall here insert a passage, which will hardly obtain belief.
Chpt 2 (definition 1) *passage = a short part of a longer written work
- And, indeed, I was glad not to have been a spectator of the havoc they made, because I am confident it would have sensibly touched me, by bringing former passages into my mind, which I would rather have forgot.
Chpt 2 (definition 1)passages = short parts of longer written works
Uses with a very common or rare meaning:
- It would not be proper, for some reasons, to trouble the reader with the particulars of our adventures in those seas; let it suffice to inform him, that in our passage from thence to the East Indies, we were driven by a violent storm to the north-west of Van Diemen's Land.†
Chpt 1 (definition 2)
- The carpenter came, and in a few minutes sawed a passage about four feet square, then let down a small ladder, upon which I mounted, and thence was taken into the ship in a very weak condition.†
Chpt 2 (definition 2)
- That he discovered two staples upon one side, which was all of boards, without any passage for light.†
Chpt 2 (definition 2)
- …and in its absence from the sun, carry a blazing tail ten hundred thousand and fourteen miles long, through which, if the earth should pass at the distance of one hundred thousand miles from the nucleus, or main body of the comet, it must in its passage be set on fire, and reduced to ashes: that the sun, daily spending its rays without any nutriment to supply them, will at last be wholly consumed and annihilated; which must be attended with the destruction of this earth, and of all the…†
Chpt 3 (definition 2)
- I went into another room, where the walls and ceiling were all hung round with cobwebs, except a narrow passage for the artist to go in and out.†
Chpt 3 (definition 2) *
- Two of them came on board in less than half an hour, by whom we were guided between certain shoals and rocks, which are very dangerous in the passage, to a large basin, where a fleet may ride in safety within a cable's length of the town-wall.†
Chpt 3 (definition 2)
- Their fundamental is, that all diseases arise from repletion; whence they conclude, that a great evacuation of the body is necessary, either through the natural passage or upwards at the mouth.†
Chpt 4 (definition 2)
Definitions:
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(1) (passage as in: In lines 1-9 of the passage...) a short part of a longer written workeditor's notes: This meaning of passage is commonly seen on standardized tests like the SAT and ACT.
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(2) (meaning too common or rare to warrant focus) More frequently, passage refers to a passageway for travel or to the act of traveling. It can also refer to the passing of time or of a law. See a comprehensive dictionary for the many meanings of passage, but for comfort taking standardized tests like the SAT and ACT, be very familiar with passage being used to refer to a short excerpt from a longer written work.