Meaning
To come up to the required standard; to be good enough under inspection. The phrase carries a faint judicial air - something is being examined and judged, and it clears the bar, usually without distinction. The negative form, 'doesn't pass muster', is at least as common as the positive. Standard register, slightly formal; 'pass muster' clears the bar while 'cut the mustard' exceeds it, though the two are freely swapped in practice. Regional use: General English (military-origin idiom).
Origin
From the military muster, the formal inspection of troops. 'Muster' entered English in the fourteenth century from Latin monstrare, 'to show', via Old French, and the inspection sense - soldiers called together, counted, and their equipment reviewed - is recorded from the fifteenth century. The Phrase Finder traces the idiom's earliest print appearance to George Gascoigne in 1573, who wrote 'yet have I seene much worse passe the musters', showing that the wider 'come up to standard' sense was already available; the shorter 'pass muster' consolidated after it. The phrase is unrelated to 'cut the mustard', whatever the shared joke of the eggcorn 'pass mustard' suggests.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- does not pass muster
- pass mustard (eggcorn)
- pass the muster
- passed muster
Usage Examples
- The draft passed muster with legal, though nobody claimed it was elegant.
- Two of the three prototypes passed muster; the third went back to the workshop.
- Her accent wouldn't pass muster in Paris, but the bakery customers didn't mind.