pace

A step.

Adjective

  1. Describing a bowler who bowls fast balls.

Origin

From Middle English pase, from Anglo-Norman pas, Old French pas, and their source, Latin passus. Doublet of pas and fathom; compare also pass. Cognate with pass, Spanish pasear, paso.

Noun Entry 2

  1. A step.

    1. A step taken with the foot.

    2. The distance covered in a step (or sometimes two), either vaguely or according to various specific set measurements.

      • Even at the duel, standing 10 paces apart, he could have satisfied Aaron’s honor.
      • I have perambulated your field, and estimate its perimeter to be 219 paces.
  2. A way of stepping.
    • Netherlands, one of the pre-tournament favourites, combined their undoubted guile, creativity, pace and attacking quality with midfield grit and organisation. - 2012 June 9, Owen Phillips, “Euro 2012: Netherlands 0-1...

    1. A manner of walking, running or dancing; the rate or style of how someone moves with their feet.

    2. Any of various gaits of a horse, specifically a 2-beat, lateral gait.

  3. Speed or velocity in general.
    • For with ſuch puiſſance and impetuous maine / Thoſe Champions broke on them, that forſt the fly, / Like ſcattered Sheepe, whenas the Shepherds ſwaine / A Lyon and a Tigre doth eſpye, / With greedy pace forth ruſhing...
    • The fastest women runners can run a mile in well under five minutes, but in order to reach that goal they've had to train at a much slower pace over thousands of miles. - 1983, Kathryn Lance, Running for Health, Bantam,...

    Synonyms: tempo rhythm

  4. A measure of the hardness of a pitch and of the tendency of a cricket ball to maintain its speed after bouncing.
    • He didn't bowl a lot of pace in the first T20I.
  5. A group of donkeys.
    • […] but at Broadstairs and other places along the coast, a pace of donkeys stood on the sea-shore expectant (at least, their owners were expectant) of children clamouring to ride. - 1952, G. B. Stern, The Donkey Shoe,...
    • A pace of donkeys fans out in different directions. - 2006 November 9, “Drop the dead donkeys”, in The Economist:
    • Like a small farm, the lighthouse compound had its chattering of chicks, pace of donkeys, troop of horses, and fold of sheep. - 2007, Elinor De Wire, The Lightkeepers' Menagerie: Stories of Animals at Lighthouses,...
  6. A passage, a route.

    1. (obsolete) One's journey or route.

    2. (obsolete) A passage through difficult terrain; a mountain pass or route vulnerable to ambush etc.

      • But when she saw them gone she forward went, / As lay her journey, through that perlous Pace [...]. - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie,...

    3. (obsolete) An aisle in a church.

Forms

paces

Derived

at pace change of pace cinque-pace footpace force the pace gather pace geometrical pace halfpace keep pace keep the pace medium pace mend one's pace paceboard pace bowler pace bowling pace car pace lap paceline pacemaker pacemaking paceman pace notes pace-of-life syndrome pacer

Noun Entry 3

  1. Synonym of Easter.

    Synonyms: Easter

Origin

Alteration of archaic Pasch.

Forms

paces

Derived

pace egg

Preposition

  1. With all due respect to.
    • She is marvelous here, but he (pace many critics) is no bumpkin - 1998, Harold Bloom, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human:

Origin

From Latin pāce (“in peace”), ablative form of pāx (“peace”).

Verb

  1. To walk back and forth in a small distance.
    • Groups of men, in all imaginable attitudes, were lying, standing, sitting, or pacing up and down. - 1874, Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life, Chapter V:
    • As we stood waiting for the departure time with the setting sun twinkling on the great brass dome of our 2-4-0, the sound of church bells was the only one apart from the measured tread of the guard slowly pacing towards...
  2. To walk along or through sth with regular strides.
  3. To set the speed.
    • I helped her train for the marathon by pacing her on a bike.
    • The clubs in London, Manchester, Birmingham, etc., hold various track meetings for races varying from one mile to fifty miles, the longer distances being sometimes paced by tandems. - 1921, W. F. Grew, The Cycle...

    Synonyms: set the pace

  4. To measure by walking.

Forms

paces pacing paced

Derived

mispace outpace pacemaker pace off pace oneself pace out repace tachypace