All 35 Uses of
passage
in
Moby Dick
- True enough, thought I, as this passage occurred to my mind—old black-letter, thou reasonest well.
Chpt 1-3 (definition 1) *passage = a short part of a longer written work
- How wildly it heightens the effect of that passage in Froissart, when, masked in the snowy symbol of their faction, the desperate White Hoods of Ghent murder their bailiff in the market-place!
Chpt 40-42 (definition 1)
- I have particularly questioned him concerning this passage in Langsdorff. He substantiates every word.
Chpt 43-45 (definition 1)
- All these particulars are faithfully narrated here, as they will not fail to elucidate several most important, however intricate passages, in scenes hereafter to be painted.
Chpt 61-63 (definition 1)passages = short parts of longer written works
Uses with a very common or rare meaning:
- "The aorta of a whale is larger in the bore than the main pipe of the water-works at London Bridge, and the water roaring in its passage through that pipe is inferior in impetus and velocity to the blood gushing from the whale's heart."†
Chpt Extr (definition 2)
- The voyages of the Dutch and English to the Northern Ocean, in order, if possible, to discover a passage through it to India, though they failed of their main object, laid-open the haunts of the whale.†
Chpt Extr (definition 2)
- These things are reciprocal; the ball rebounds, only to bound forward again; for now in laying open the haunts of the whale, the whalemen seem to have indirectly hit upon new clews to that same mystic North-West Passage.†
Chpt Extr (definition 2)
- At last I slid off into a light doze, and had pretty nearly made a good offing towards the land of Nod, when I heard a heavy footfall in the passage, and saw a glimmer of light come into the room from under the door.†
Chpt 1-3 (definition 2)
- Yes, the world's a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow.†
Chpt 7-9 (definition 2)
- 'I seek a passage in this ship to Tarshish; how soon sail ye, sir?'†
Chpt 7-9 (definition 2)
- 'I'll sail with ye,'—he says,—'the passage money how much is that?†
Chpt 7-9 (definition 2)
- Not a forger, any way, he mutters; and Jonah is put down for his passage.†
Chpt 7-9 (definition 2)
- A Sag Harbor ship visited his father's bay, and Queequeg sought a passage to Christian lands.†
Chpt 10-12 (definition 2)
- At last, passage paid, and luggage safe, we stood on board the schooner.†
Chpt 13-15 (definition 2)
- Nothing more happened on the passage worthy the mentioning; so, after a fine run, we safely arrived in Nantucket.†
Chpt 13-15 (definition 2)
- Setting out in their canoes, after a perilous passage they discovered the island, and there they found an empty ivory casket,—the poor little Indian's skeleton.†
Chpt 13-15 (definition 2)
- Aye, aye, I know that he was never very jolly; and I know that on the passage home, he was a little out of his mind for a spell; but it was the sharp shooting pains in his bleeding stump that brought that about, as any one might see.†
Chpt 16-18 (definition 2)
- Upon the passage homewards, they drop them there again.†
Chpt 25-27 (definition 2) *
- But the Pequod was only making a passage now; not regularly cruising; nearly all whaling preparatives needing supervision the mates were fully competent to, so that there was little or nothing, out of himself, to employ or excite Ahab, now; and thus chase away, for that one interval, the clouds that layer upon layer were piled upon his brow, as ever all clouds choose the loftiest peaks to pile themselves upon.†
Chpt 28-30 (definition 2)
- He mounts the Folio whale's back, and as he swims, he works his passage by flogging him; as some schoolmasters get along in the world by a similar process.†
Chpt 31-33 (definition 2)
- Hence, by inference, it has been believed by some whalemen, that the Nor' West Passage, so long a problem to man, was never a problem to the whale.†
Chpt 40-42 (definition 2)
- So that here, in the real living experience of living men, the prodigies related in old times of the inland Strello mountain in Portugal (near whose top there was said to be a lake in which the wrecks of ships floated up to the surface); and that still more wonderful story of the Arethusa fountain near Syracuse (whose waters were believed to have come from the Holy Land by an underground passage); these fabulous narrations are almost fully equalled by the realities of the whalemen.†
Chpt 40-42 (definition 2)
- That it was only then, on the homeward voyage, after the encounter, that the final monomania seized him, seems all but certain from the fact that, at intervals during the passage, he was a raving lunatic; and, though unlimbed of a leg, yet such vital strength yet lurked in his Egyptian chest, and was moreover intensified by his delirium, that his mates were forced to lace him fast, even there, as he sailed, raving in his hammock.†
Chpt 40-42 (definition 2)
- Besides, when making a passage from one feeding-ground to another, the sperm whales, guided by some infallible instinct—say, rather, secret intelligence from the Deity—mostly swim in VEINS, as they are called; continuing their way along a given ocean-line with such undeviating exactitude, that no ship ever sailed her course, by any chart, with one tithe of such marvellous precision.†
Chpt 43-45 (definition 2)
- No possible endeavor then could enable her commander to make the great passage southwards, double Cape Horn, and then running down sixty degrees of latitude arrive in the equatorial Pacific in time to cruise there.†
Chpt 43-45 (definition 2)
- Though no small passage was before her, yet, if the commonest chance favoured, he did not at all fear that his ship would founder by the way, because his pumps were of the best, and being periodically relieved at them, those six-and-thirty men of his could easily keep the ship free; never mind if the leak should double on her.†
Chpt 52-54 (definition 2)
- In truth, well nigh the whole of this passage being attended by very prosperous breezes, the Town-Ho had all but certainly arrived in perfect safety at her port without the occurrence of the least fatality, had it not been for the brutal overbearing of Radney, the mate, a Vineyarder, and the bitterly provoked vengeance of Steelkilt, a Lakeman and desperado from Buffalo.†
Chpt 52-54 (definition 2)
- But as she was so far to windward, and shooting by, apparently making a passage to some other ground, the Pequod could not hope to reach her.†
Chpt 70-72 (definition 2)
- So that when I shall hereafter detail to you all the specialities and concentrations of potency everywhere lurking in this expansive monster; when I shall show you some of his more inconsiderable braining feats; I trust you will have renounced all ignorant incredulity, and be ready to abide by this; that though the Sperm Whale stove a passage through the Isthmus of Darien, and mixed the Atlantic with the Pacific, you would not elevate one hair of your eye-brow.†
Chpt 76-78 (definition 2)
- But not to speak of the passage through the whole length of the Mediterranean, and another passage up the Persian Gulf and Red Sea, such a supposition would involve the complete circumnavigation of all Africa in three days, not to speak of the Tigris waters, near the site of Nineveh, being too shallow for any whale to swim in.†
Chpt 82-84 (definition 2)
- But not to speak of the passage through the whole length of the Mediterranean, and another passage up the Persian Gulf and Red Sea, such a supposition would involve the complete circumnavigation of all Africa in three days, not to speak of the Tigris waters, near the site of Nineveh, being too shallow for any whale to swim in.†
Chpt 82-84 (definition 2)
- As marching armies approaching an unfriendly defile in the mountains, accelerate their march, all eagerness to place that perilous passage in their rear, and once more expand in comparative security upon the plain; even so did this vast fleet of whales now seem hurrying forward through the straits; gradually contracting the wings of their semicircle, and swimming on, in one solid, but still crescentic centre.†
Chpt 85-87 (definition 2)
- This was an easy thing, for the carpenter had been thrusting his shavings into the furnace throughout the passage.†
Chpt 94-96 (definition 2)
- Making so long a passage through such unfrequented waters, descrying no ships, and ere long, sideways impelled by unvarying trade winds, over waves monotonously mild; all these seemed the strange calm things preluding some riotous and desperate scene.†
Chpt 124-126 (definition 2)
- We must not run over him before morning; he's making a passage now, and may heave-to a while.†
Chpt 133-135 (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.