Question: I found the phrase in this sentence,

> 
> There are way over 10,000 numbered examples in The Cambridge Grammar, and thousands more **given in passing in the text**.
> 
> 
> 

I couldn't parse this last part at first. Not sure if it is *"to give in"* (which sounds quite wrong), or *"in passing"* (meaning casually, sounds wrong; not part of the main subject, also sounds wrong), or *"passing in"*, or it was *"given a pass"*, or something else. I only know that if I omitted that *in passing* part, it will make more sense.

I looked up *"pass in"* in a few dictionaries, nothing came up.

After some twenty searches or so, I finally found this definition:

> 
> **in passing**: by the way; incidentally: *he mentioned your visit in passing*
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which is helpful, since I can understand **given *incidentally* in the text**.

But I am still a bit unsure...

Do I understand that sentence correctly?

Answer: 
> 
> There are way over 10,000 numbered examples in The Cambridge Grammar, and thousands more given in passing in the text.
> 
> 
> 

There are over 10,000 numbered examples in the Cambridge Grammar. These examples are given explicitly. They are defined, they are intended as the primary examples.
In addition to those 10,000, there are thousands more provided throughout the book (the text). These other examples however are not explicitly given. They are given "in passing" (in this case, meaning 'casually', 'incidentally').

For example, say I was trying to explain the number five (5) to you. I am explicitly explaining that five is a number used to count objects. In order to explain it to you, I will also have to explain the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 (because without it, you wouldn't understand 5). I'm not trying to explicitly explain those other numbers though, I am explaining them in passing in order to explain 5.

In the case of the Cambridge Grammar, a given idiom or construction of words might be defined in passing in order to explain a more important and specific point.
I'd say that a better interpretation of "in passing" would be "[said or mentioned as an aside](http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/in+passing)".

So the sentence should read:

> 
> There are way over 10,000 numbered examples in The Cambridge Grammar, and thousands more **given *as an aside* in the text**.
> 
> 
> 

Hope this helps.