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.
© Webster 1913.