make a pass at

“We told them that nobody would make a pass at them,” Oliver said.

If this woman wanted to make a pass at you, though, wouldn’t she do it in the privacy of your one-on-one chats, rather than at a distance, in front of other parents and possibly your spouses?

The internet did what the internet does after San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo appeared to make a pass at veteran sideline reporter Erin Andrews following Thursday night’s game.

Several colleagues who worked with him for years said that they were genuinely surprised by the accusations — saying that they had seen him as a someone who might flirt or make a pass at women, but not harass them.

Their efforts end up telling us something about what it means to assess our lives without giving up on ourselves: “We make a pass at a swell in realism, and look for the hook. We back up at the hint of something. We butt in. We try to describe the smell; we trim the fat to pinpoint what seems to be the matter here.”