Dictionary

hall pass en · NOUN

Etymology

From hall + pass.

Meanings

1. (US) A permit to be out of class during school hours.
   • To freely move around the school when you should be in class requires an official hall pass. Those are guarded like government-issued official travel documents. Most teachers don't just hand them out to anybody who asks. 2018, Erica Catherman, Jonathan Catherman, The Girls' Guide to Conquering Middle School, Revell, →ISBN:
2. (broadly, informal) An agreement to temporarily or conditionally relax monogamy in a relationship.
   • So these wives give them a "hall pass": for one week only, they get a bachelor holiday from married life, no questions asked. 2011 March 10, Peter Bradshaw, “Hall Pass – review”, in The Guardian:
   • The story kicks in when a relationship guru (Joy Behar) suggests that the wives give their husbands a week off from marriage — a hall pass — which, after not much anguish, they do. 2011 February 24, Manohla Dargis, “Man-Child in the Promised Land, for a Whole (Pant! Pant!) Week”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
   • Shane explains: “I’ve got a hall pass to sleep with other women but that wasn’t the original intention. 2018 June 1, Holly O'Mahony, “‘Stag’ men love watching other guys have sex with their wives… but it’s not cuckolding”, in The Sun:

Forms