Does the phrase "pass out" also mean "to graduate"?

Solution 1:

To pass out is a BrE expression which means to leave college after graduating, especially in military contexts. The idiomatic expression may have been adopted in India from the BrE usage:

(uk) to leave a military college after successfully finishing the course:

• The new officers passed out from Britannia Royal Naval College on Thursday 1 August.

(Cambridge Dictionary)

To pass out:

• (INTRANSITIVE) (BRITISH) to officially complete a course at a military or a police college.

(MacMillanta Dictionary)

To pass out:

When a police, army, navy, or air force cadet passes out, he or she completes his or her training.[British]

• He passed out in November 1924 and was posted to No 24 Squadron.

(Collins Dictionary)

Also, as suggested from the following extract from Quora:

• The Indian education system, has always followed British English mainly because of the influence of British colonization in India before independence.

• Pass out in British English means Graduate. However in America, the term is commonly used to denote fainting; usually under the influence of alcohol. Grammatically and historically there is nothing wrong with using the term.

And from Ten surprising expressions in Indian English

'I passed out of college'

• When someone passes out, your first response may be to loosen their collar and get a cold towel. Fear not, in India, passing out has little to do with fainting or falling unconscious. It actually links to number one on the list. 'I passed out' from this college or that university is the Indian-English way of saying 'I graduated'.