Passing vs Indifferent - What's the difference?
passing | indifferent | Related terms |
That passes away; ephemeral.
* 1814 , (Lord Byron), Lara , I.15:
* 2010 , Marianne Kirby, The Guardian , 21 Sep 2010:
* Shakespeare
* 1835 , (Washington Irving), The Crayon Miscellany :
* 1847 , Robert Holmes, The Case of Ireland Stated :
vague, cursory.
* 2011 , Stewart J Lawrence, The Guardian , 14 Jun 2011:
going past - passing cars.
* 1813 , (Percy Bysshe Shelley), Queen Mab , I:
* 2010 , Simon Hattenstone, The Guardian , 30 Oct 2010:
Death, dying; the end of something.
The fact of going past; a movement from one place to another or a change from one state to another.
* (Oliver Onions), The Story of Louie
(legal) The act of approving a bill etc.
(sports) The act of passing a ball etc. to another player.
A form of juggling where several people pass props between each other, usually clubs or rings.
Not caring or concerned; uninterested, apathetic.
Mediocre, usually used negatively in modern usage.
* Sir Walter Scott
Having no preference or bias, being impartial.
* Addison
Not making a difference; without significance or importance.
* Shakespeare
* Jeremy Taylor
* Nathaniel Hawthorne
(mechanics) Being in the state of neutral equilibrium.
(obsolete) To some extent, in some degree (intermediate between very'' and ''not at all ); moderately, tolerably, fairly.
Passing is a related term of indifferent.
As verbs the difference between passing and indifferent
is that passing is while indifferent is .As an adjective passing
is that passes away; ephemeral.As an adverb passing
is .As a noun passing
is death, dying; the end of something.passing
English
Verb
(head)Adjective
(en adjective)- And solace sought he none from priest nor leech, / And soon the same in movement and in speech / As heretofore he fill'd the passing hours
- It might be possible to dismiss
- dittowatch as just another passing internet fancy. After all, hashtags are ephemeral.
- her passing deformity
- It was by dint of passing strength, / That he moved the massy stone at length.
- That parliament was destined, in one short hour of convulsive strength, in one short hour of passing glory, to humble the pride and alarm the fears of England.
- Ardent pro-lifer Rick Santorum made one passing reference to "authenticity" as a litmus test for a conservative candidate, but if he was obliquely referring to Romney (and he was), you could be excused for missing the dig.
Adverb
(-)- One, pale as yonder waning moon, / With lips of lurid blue; / The other, rosy as the morn / When throned on ocean's wave, / It blushes o'er the world: / Yet both so passing wonderful!
- ‘I find it passing strange that convicts understand honest folk, but honest folk don't understand convicts.’
Usage notes
* This use is sometimes misconstrued as meaning "vaguely" or "slightly" (perhaps by confusion with such phrases as "passing fancy", under Adjective, above), leading to formations such as "more than passing clever" etc.Noun
- And since he did not see Louie by the folding door, Louie knew that in his former passings and repassings he could not have seen her either.
indifferent
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- He was indifferent to the proposal, since it didn't affect him, either way.
- The long distance and the indifferent roads made the journey impossible.
- The performance of Blue Jays has been '''indifferent'' this season.
- The staterooms are in indifferent order.
- ''I am indifferent between the two plans.
- indifferent in his choice to sleep or die
- Even if one appliance consumes an indifferent amount of energy when left on stand-by overnight, together they can represent 10% of the electricity demand of a household.
- Dangers are to me indifferent .
- Everything in the world is indifferent but sin.
- His slightest and most indifferent acts were odious in the clergyman's sight.
Quotations
* , act 4, scene 1: *: Let their heads be sleekly combed their blue coats brushed and their garters of an indifferent knitAdverb
- The face of the Moon appearing to me to be full of indifferent high mountains...