adj. 1 disappearing, vanishing, ephemeral, brief, going, fading (away), slipping away, short-lived, expiring, transient, transitory, temporary, momentary, fleeting, transitional, impermanent I hope that Anne's obsession with acid rock is a passing fancy 2 hasty, superficial, cursory, casual, quick, fleeting, brief, summary, abrupt, dismissive; glancing The speaker paid only passing attention to those he disagreed with 3 in passing. by the way, incidentally, by the by, parenthetically, en passant I might mention, in passing, that my train was late owing to the strike
n. 4 death, dying, demise, end, loss, expiry, expiration, dying out, extinction, disappearance, vanishment Her passing is a great sorrow to all of us Who thought we would live to see the passing of the steam engine?