pass muster
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To be accepted as satisfactory or of sufficient quality
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
được chấp nhận là đủ điều kiện hoặc chất lượng
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: pass inspection
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Nevertheless, it is easy to underestimate just how complex behaviour has to be before attributions of attitude and meaning pass methodological muster.
This system was installed in a six - storey experimental building in Tokyo in August 1989 and has passed muster in six small earthquakes since then.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “pass muster” mean?
To be accepted as satisfactory or of sufficient quality Literally: pass inspection
Is “pass muster” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.