Hypertext Webster Gateway: "passport"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Passport \Pass"port\, n. [F. passeport, orig., a permission to
leave a port or to sail into it; passer to pass + port a
port, harbor. See {Pass}, and {Port} a harbor.]
1. Permission to pass; a document given by the competent
officer of a state, permitting the person therein named to
pass or travel from place to place, without molestation,
by land or by water.
Caution in granting passports to Ireland.
--Clarendon.
2. A document carried by neutral merchant vessels in time of
war, to certify their nationality and protect them from
belligerents; a sea letter.
3. A license granted in time of war for the removal of
persons and effects from a hostile country; a
safe-conduct. --Burrill.
4. Figuratively: Anything which secures advancement and
general acceptance. --Sir P. Sidney.
His passport is his innocence and grace. --Dryden.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
passport
n 1: any authorization to pass or go somewhere; "the pass to
visit had a strict time limit" [syn: {pass}]
2: a document issued by a country to a citizen allowing that
person to travel abroad and re-enter the home country
3: any quality or characteristic that gains a person acceptance
or admission; "his wealth was not a passport into the
exclusive circles of society"
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