Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, 11th Edition
PASSAGE
I. noun
Date: 13th century
1. a way of exit or entrance ; a road, path, channel, or course by which something passes, a corridor or lobby giving access to the different rooms or parts of a building or apartment,
2. the action or process of passing from one place, condition, or stage to another, death 1a, a continuous movement or flow ,
3. a. a specific act of traveling or passing especially by sea or air, a privilege of conveyance as a passenger ; accommodations, the passing of a legislative measure or law ; enactment , a right, liberty, or permission to pass,
5. something that happens or is done ; incident , something that takes place between two persons mutually,
6. a usually brief portion of a written work or speech that is relevant to a point under discussion or noteworthy for content or style, a phrase or short section of a musical composition, a detail of a work of art (as a painting), the act or action of passing something or undergoing a passing, incubation of a pathogen (as a virus) in culture, a living organism, or a developing egg,
II. verb (passaged; passaging)
Date: 1824
intransitive verb to go past or across ; cross , transitive verb to subject to passage