pass up

verb

passed up; passing up; passes up

transitive verb

: to let go by without accepting or taking advantage of

pass up a chance for promotion

also : decline, reject

Synonyms

• balk (at)
• decline
• deselect
• disapprove
• negative
• nix
• pass
• refuse
• reject
• reprobate
• repudiate
• spurn
• throw out
• throw over
• turn down

Examples of pass up in a Sentence

I must pass up the offer to be chairman of this event.

Recent Examples on the Web

Kate Hudson admittedly regrets passing up on the opportunity to pick up 10 (or 15) skirts from Calvin Klein for Meryl Streep's Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada. —EW.com, 21 Feb. 2025

But the opportunity to take the field with her sister, Valerie, a freshman who is already starting at defensive midfielder, was too good to pass up. —Joseph Dycus, The Mercury News, 14 Feb. 2025

Hague certainly didn't pass up the opportunity to steal a few glances of Earth and its magnificent sunsets during a Jan. 16 spacewalk with Williams. —Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY, 31 Jan. 2025

Knowing that he and his longtime writing partner C. Robert Cargill fully adapted Joe Hill’s short story of the same name, Derrickson didn’t necessarily plan on making a sequel, but Hill floated an idea that was too tempting to pass up. —Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1896, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for pass up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup