Pass Out Meaning: Definition, Examples and How to Use It
Pass out is a small phrasal verb with two big jobs. Most of the time it means to lose consciousness — to faint. The rest of the time it means to give things out to people, as a teacher does with worksheets. Same verb, same spelling, two unrelated meanings — and the grammar actually tells you which one you’re looking at. If pass out has an object, someone is distributing something; if it stands alone, someone is probably unconscious.
There are also two niche senses worth knowing: in British English, cadets “pass out” of military and police academies when they complete their training, and in informal American slang it can mean falling asleep. This article walks through each sense, the grammar that separates them, and the mistakes people actually make.
What the dictionaries say
The reference works agree on the core picture, with each adding its own shade:
| Dictionary | Definition |
|---|---|
| Cambridge Dictionary | (UNCONSCIOUS): “He passed out from the heat.” (GIVE): “pass out something” — to give or distribute something. |
| Oxford Advanced American Dictionary | pass out phrasal verb: “to become unconscious” — listed as a synonym of faint. |
| Collins (COBUILD) | “If you pass out, you faint or collapse.” Also recorded: “When a police, army, navy, or air force cadet passes out, he or she completes his or her training.” [British] |
| Collins (Webster’s New World, American) | “1. to distribute; 2. to become unconscious; faint” — the two senses given in exactly the reverse order of the British list. |
| Merriam-Webster (thesaurus) | “to lose consciousness” — synonyms: faint, black out, keel (over), collapse, swoon, conk (out), zonk (out). |
Notice the pattern: American dictionaries lead with the distribute sense; British ones lead with the faint sense. In practice, both senses are alive in both countries — but this ordering is a small clue about which meaning springs to mind first on each side of the Atlantic.
Meaning 1: To lose consciousness (faint)
This is the sense you meet most in everyday conversation. To pass out is to lose consciousness briefly — because of heat, shock, low blood pressure, pain, or drink. Oxford treats it as a straight synonym of faint, and Merriam-Webster’s synonym set (faint, black out, keel over, swoon, collapse) shows the family it belongs to.
- “He passed out from the heat.” (Cambridge’s own example)
- “Some of the football players passed out from the heat.”
- “When she heard the news, she passed out cold.” (the emphatic form, meaning fully unconscious)
- “She felt dizzy and thought she was going to pass out.”
Grammar point: in this sense the verb is intransitive — it takes no object. You cannot “pass out the dog” in the faint sense; if an object appears, you’ve crossed into the distribute meaning.
A related state: after fainting and coming round, people typically feel dazed and weak. That foggy, heavy-headed condition has its own word — groggy — which covers the recovering-from-unconsciousness feeling precisely. If you fainted and then woke confused, groggy is the word for how you felt next.
Meaning 2: To distribute, give out
The second life of pass out is completely unconnected to fainting: it means to give things to each person in a group, usually by hand. This is the classroom and office sense:
- “The teacher passed out the test results.”
- “Please pass these out to everyone.”
- “Our troop leader passed the cookies out.”
- “Volunteers passed out flyers for the concert.”
Grammar point: in this sense the verb is separable — the object can sit between pass and out or after both. “Pass out the papers” and “pass the papers out” are equally correct. With pronouns, separation is required: “pass them out,” never “pass out them.”
The British training sense: “passing out” parades
Collins records a distinctly British sense with no fainting and no handouts: when military cadets, police recruits, or officer trainees complete their course, they “pass out.” The passing-out parade is the ceremonial march marking graduation:
- “General Smith passed out from Sandhurst in 1933.” (Collins example)
- “The recruits will pass out at the end of the month.”
This sense is unknown in American English, where it would baffle listeners — yet another reason context decides everything with this verb. Note it is always intransitive here and always in British institutional settings.
The informal slang sense: falling asleep
Online slang dictionaries record one more use: to fall asleep, especially after alcohol or drugs, or just from exhaustion — “I went home and passed out after a long day at work.” This is informal and overlaps with the faint sense in feeling (sudden, complete unconsciousness) but differs in cause: nobody “passes out” asleep from the heat. It is casual register — fine for conversation, not for a medical report.
Don’t confuse: pass out vs. pass away vs. pass on
These three look similar and confuse learners constantly:
| Phrase | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| pass out | faint / lose consciousness | “He passed out at the sight of blood.” |
| pass away | die (polite, euphemistic) | “Her grandmother passed away last spring.” |
| pass on | give to someone else; also decline (“I’ll pass on dessert”) | “Pass this message on to the team.” |
The most dangerous mix-up is the first two: someone who has passed out needs smelling salts and a glass of water; someone who has passed away needs a funeral. Keep them apart.
Pronunciation
UK: /pɑːs aʊt/ — “pahss owt,” with the long a of car. US: /pæs aʊt/ — “pass owt,” with the short a of cat. Stress falls on pass; out is lighter. The past tense and past participle are regular: passed out.
Common mistakes
Using “pass out” to mean dying. As the table above shows, fainting is temporary. For dying, the polite term is pass away — confusing them produces genuinely alarming misunderstandings.
Splitting the verb with a noun object in the faint sense. “He passed the papers out” is fine (distribute). But “she passed her consciousness out” is not a construction English allows — the faint sense never takes an object.
Forgetting the pronoun rule in the distribute sense. “Pass out them” is wrong; it must be “pass them out.” This is the standard separable-phrasal-verb rule, same as “pick them up.”
Using the training sense outside Britain. “He passed out of the academy” will be read as fainting in American English. On the American side, cadets “graduate.”
FAQs
What is the difference between “pass out” and “faint”?
Almost none in meaning — Oxford lists them as synonyms. Pass out is more conversational; faint works in both casual and formal registers. Medical writing tends to prefer faint, lose consciousness, or syncope.
Can “pass out” be used for sleep?
Informally, yes — “I passed out on the sofa” can mean falling asleep deeply, often after exhaustion or drink. It carries a slightly comical tone. In formal writing, say fell asleep.
Is “pass out the papers” correct, or must it be “pass the papers out”?
Both are correct. With a noun object, either position works. With a pronoun, the pronoun must come between: “pass them out.”
What does “passed out cold” mean?
The emphatic form of the faint sense: completely and suddenly unconscious. “Out cold” intensifies the unconsciousness — there is no partial state.
How is “pass out” different from “pass away”?
Pass out means fainting (temporary); pass away is a gentle way of saying someone died (permanent). Never substitute one for the other.
Takeaway
Pass out does two jobs: lose consciousness (“he passed out from the heat”) and hand things out (“pass the papers out”) — with bonus senses for British cadet graduation and informal sleeping. The object test settles it: an object means distribution; no object means fainting. Keep it far away from pass away (to die), and remember the pronoun rule — “pass them out.”
