bypass

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
13
Words With Friends
14
Letters
6
Pronunciation
/ˈbaɪpæs/
See all 2 pronunciations
/ˈbaɪpæs/ · /ˈbaɪpɑːs/

Definition of bypass

8 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. A road that passes around something, such as a residential area or business district.
See all 8 definitions

noun

  1. A road that passes around something, such as a residential area or business district.
  2. A replacement road for obsolete road that is no longer in use because devastating natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides).
  3. The act of going past or around.
  4. A section of pipe that conducts a fluid around some other fixture.
  5. An electrical shunt.
  6. An alternative passage created to divert a bodily fluid around a damaged organ; the surgical procedure to construct such a bypass.
    “Five of the 16 patients required simultaneous FF bypass and iliaco-femoral bypass; 2, required simultaneous FF bypass and iliac thrombo-endoarterectomy (Table II).”

verb

  1. To avoid an obstacle etc, by constructing or using a bypass.
  2. To ignore the usual channels or procedures.
    “More to theyr proper Elements inaugurated none, / Than ſhee to hers by-paſſed, he to his poſſeſſed Throne.”
    “Another force, also from the east, has by-passed Peiping and is striking southward. It apparently intends to swing eastward to form a junction, which probably will be effected near Langfang, on the railroad 30 miles southeast of Peiping.”
    “I never got seated. 1 stood in the entrance half an hour, bypassed again and again by a maitre d’hotel who had clearly been through all this many times before. Walking to a seat, I realized, would gain me nothing. No waiter would take my order.”
    “Datacasting bypasses the wired, terrestrial Internet and is a cheaper way to distribute software than pressing and mailing CDs.”
    “Thanks to Brexit, many ferry companies now run direct from Ireland to the EU mainland, bypassing UK ports such as Fishguard, with an impact on traffic.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Middle English *bypassen, *bipassen (suggested by past participle by-past, bipast), equivalent to by- + pass.

Anagrams of bypass

1 play · some not in Scrabble

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