sell the pass
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To fail to defend or take advantage of an opportunity
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Thất bại trong việc bảo vệ hoặc tận dụng cơ hội
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: sell a mountain pass
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The team sold the pass and lost the game
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
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 “sell the pass” mean?
To fail to defend or take advantage of an opportunity Literally: sell a mountain pass
Is “sell the pass” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.