in passing

English

Prepositional phrase

in passing

1. Incidentally; as a brief diversion from another topic etc.

   We mostly talked about his mother's illness, but he told me in passing that he'd won a small prize in the lottery.

   • 1968, “Did She Mention My Name?”, performed by Gordon Lightfoot:

     Did she mention my name just in passing?

Translations

incidentally

• Bulgarian: мимоходом (bg) (mimohodom)
• Catalan: al vol, de passada
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 順便／顺便 (zh) (shùnbiàn)

• Dutch: in het voorbijgaan, en passant (nl), terloops (nl)
• Finnish: ohimennen (fi)
• French: en passant (fr)
• German: beiläufig (de); nebenbei (de); zwischen Tür und Angel (de)
• Latin: obiter
• Portuguese: de passagem
• Russian: мимохо́дом (ru) (mimoxódom), вскользь (ru) (vskolʹzʹ), ме́жду про́чим (ru) (méždu próčim)
• Spanish: de pasada
• Swedish: i förbifarten (sv)
• Yiddish: אַגבֿ־אורחא (agev-urkhe)