slip one past

English

Verb

slip one past (third-person singular simple present slips one past, present participle slipping one past, simple past and past participle slipped one past)

1. To sneak something through a process or inspection; to hide something or conceal a fact; to prevent attention being drawn to something.

   Your deception won't work: no inmate has slipped one past Officer Smith in years.

Usage notes

It is possible to use slip past as an ordinary combination of slip + past (sneak something by without being caught) with an object in the middle (e.g. We'll slip the box past the guards), but the object can be replaced by one, even in situations where the object is unspecified or would not normally be replaced with one.