Adjacent Words

Pause definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PAUSE, n. paux. [L. pausa; Gr. to cease, or cause to rest.]
1. A stop; a cessation or intermission of action, of speaking, singing, playing or the like; a temporary stop or rest.
2. Cessation proceeding from doubt; suspense.
I stand in pause where I shall first begin.
3. Break or paragraph in writing.
4. A temporary cessation in reading. The use of punctuation is to mark the pauses in writing. In verse, there are two kinds of pauses, the cesural and the final. The cesural pause divides the verse; the final pause closes it. The pauses which mark the sense, and which may be called sentential, are the same in prose and verse.
5. A mark of cessation or intermission of the voice; a point.
PAUSE, v.i. pauz. To make a short stop; to cease to speak for a time; to intermit speaking or action.
Pausing a while, thus to herself she mused.
1. To stop; to wait; to forbear for a time.
Tarry, pause a day or two,
Before you hazard.
2. To be intermitted. The music pauses.
To pause upon, to deliberate.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a time interval during which there is a temporary cessation of something [syn: pause, intermission, break, interruption, suspension]
2: temporary inactivity v
1: interrupt temporarily an activity before continuing; "The speaker paused" [syn: hesitate, pause]
2: cease an action temporarily; "We pause for station identification"; "let's break for lunch" [syn: pause, intermit, break]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Latin pausa, from Greek pausis, from pauein to stop Date: 15th century 1. a temporary stop 2. a. a break in a verse b. a brief suspension of the voice to indicate the limits and relations of sentences and their parts 3. temporary inaction especially as caused by uncertainty ; hesitation 4. a. the sign denoting a fermata b. a mark (as a period or comma) used in writing or printing to indicate or correspond to a pause of voice 5. a reason or cause for pausing (as to reconsider) <a thought that should give one pause> 6. a function of an electronic device that pauses a recording II. verb (paused; pausing) Date: 15th century intransitive verb 1. to stop temporarily 2. to linger for a time transitive verb to cause to pause ; stop

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 an interval of inaction, esp. when due to hesitation; a temporary stop. 2 a break in speaking or reading; a silence. 3 Mus. a mark (3! 3!) over a note or rest that is to be lengthened by an unspecified amount. --v.intr. 1 make a pause; wait. 2 (usu. foll. by upon) linger over (a word etc.). Phrases and idioms: give pause to cause (a person) to hesitate. Etymology: ME f. OF pause or L pausa f. Gk pausis f. pauo stop

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pause Pause, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Paused; p. pr. & vb. n. Pausing.] [Cf. F. pauser, L. pausare. See Pause, n., Pose.] 1. To make a short stop; to cease for a time; to intermit speaking or acting; to stop; to wait; to rest. ``Tarry, pause a day or two.'' --Shak. Pausing while, thus to herself she mused. --Milton. 2. To be intermitted; to cease; as, the music pauses. 3. To hesitate; to hold back; to delay. [R.] Why doth the Jew pause? Take thy forfeiture. --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pause Pause, n. [F., fr. L. pausa. See Pose.] 1. A temporary stop or rest; an intermission of action; interruption; suspension; cessation. 2. Temporary inaction or waiting; hesitation; suspence; doubt. I stand in pause where I shall first begin. --Shak. 3. In speaking or reading aloud, a brief arrest or suspension of voice, to indicate the limits and relations of sentences and their parts. 4. In writing and printing, a mark indicating the place and nature of an arrest of voice in reading; a punctuation point; as, teach the pupil to mind the pauses. 5. A break or paragraph in writing. He writes with warmth, which usually neglects method, and those partitions and pauses which men educated in schools observe. --Locke. 6. (Mus.) A hold. See 4th Hold, 7. Syn: Stop; cessation; suspension.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pause Pause, v. t. To cause to stop or rest; -- used reflexively. [R.] --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Hold Hold, n. 1. The act of holding, as in or with the hands or arms; the manner of holding, whether firm or loose; seizure; grasp; clasp; gripe; possession; -- often used with the verbs take and lay. Ne have I not twelve pence within mine hold. --Chaucer. Thou should'st lay hold upon him. --B. Jonson. My soul took hold on thee. --Addison. Take fast hold of instruction. --Pror. iv. 13. 2. The authority or ground to take or keep; claim. The law hath yet another hold on you. --Shak. 3. Binding power and influence. Fear . . . by which God and his laws take the surest hold of. --Tillotson. 4. Something that may be grasped; means of support. If a man be upon an high place without rails or good hold, he is ready to fall. --Bacon. 5. A place of confinement; a prison; confinement; custody; guard. They . . . put them in hold unto the next day. --Acts. iv. 3. King Richard, he is in the mighty hold Of Bolingbroke. --Shak. 6. A place of security; a fortified place; a fort; a castle; -- often called a stronghold. --Chaucer. New comers in an ancient hold --Tennyson. 7. (Mus.) A character [thus ?] placed over or under a note or rest, and indicating that it is to be prolonged; -- called also pause, and corona.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Corona Co*ro"na (k?-r?"n?), n.; pl. L. Coron[ae] (-n?), E. Coronas (-n?z). [L. corona crown. See Crown.] 1. A crown or garland bestowed among the Romans as a reward for distinguished services. 2. (Arch.) The projecting part of a Classic cornice, the under side of which is cut with a recess or channel so as to form a drip. See Illust. of Column. 3. (Anat.) The upper surface of some part, as of a tooth or the skull; a crown. 4. (Zo["o]l.) The shelly skeleton of a sea urchin. 5. (Astrol.) A peculiar luminous appearance, or aureola, which surrounds the sun, and which is seen only when the sun is totally eclipsed by the moon. 6. (Bot.) (a) An inner appendage to a petal or a corolla, often forming a special cup, as in the daffodil and jonquil. (b) Any crownlike appendage at the top of an organ. 7. (Meteorol.) (a) A circle, usually colored, seen in peculiar states of the atmosphere around and close to a luminous body, as the sun or moon. (b) A peculiar phase of the aurora borealis, formed by the concentration or convergence of luminous beams around the point in the heavens indicated by the direction of the dipping needle. 8. A crown or circlet suspended from the roof or vaulting of churches, to hold tapers lighted on solemn occasions. It is sometimes formed of double or triple circlets, arranged pyramidically. Called also corona lucis. --Fairholt. 9. (Mus.) A character [[pause]] called the pause or hold.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(pauses, pausing, paused) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. If you pause while you are doing something, you stop for a short period and then continue. 'It's rather embarrassing,' he began, and paused... On leaving, she paused for a moment at the door... He talked for two hours without pausing for breath. VERB: V, V, V for n 2. A pause is a short period when you stop doing something before continuing. After a pause Alex said sharply: 'I'm sorry if I've upset you'... N-COUNT

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Stop, cessation, suspension, interruption, rest, halt, intermission, remission, stoppage, stopping, break. 2. Suspense, hesitation, uncertainty. 3. Break, paragraph (in writing). 4. Point, punctuation-mark. II. v. n. 1. Stop, cease, desist, wait, delay, rest, breathe, stay, break off. 2. Stop, wait, forbear, delay, tarry, stay, intermit. 3. Hesitate, demur, deliberate, waver, hold back.

Moby Thesaurus

abeyance, accent, accent mark, afterthought, back down, balance, bar, bashfulness, bind, blench, block, blockage, boggle, boggling, boundary, breach, break, breath, breathe, breather, breathing place, breathing space, breathing spell, breathing time, breve rest, bureaucratic delay, caesura, call a break, call a recess, call time, cancel, cease-fire, cessation, character, cigarette break, clause boundary, clause terminal, close juncture, cocktail hour, coffee break, colon, comma, compunction, custos, day off, debate, declare a recess, delay, delayage, delayed reaction, deliberate, demur, demurral, detention, diffidence, direct, discontinuance, discontinuation, discontinue, discontinuity, dot, double take, downtime, dragging, drop, eighth rest, enforced respite, expression mark, falling terminal, falter, faltering, fear, fermata, fight shy of, fissure, flinch, gap, half rest, half time, half-time intermission, halt, hang back, hang off, hang-up, happy hour, have qualms, hem and haw, hesitance, hesitancy, hesitate, hesitation, hiatus, hindrance, hold, hold off, hold up, hold-up, holdup, holiday, hover, hum and haw, interim, interlude, intermezzo, intermission, intermit, intermittence, interregnum, interrupt, interruption, interval, intervene, jam, jib, juncture, key signature, knock off, lacuna, lag, lagging, lapse, lay off, layoff, lead, let up, letup, ligature, logjam, lull, make bones about, mark, mark time, measure, metronomic mark, minim, modesty, moratorium, notation, objection, obstruction, off-time, open juncture, paperasserie, period, plateau, point, point of repose, ponder, presa, protest, pull back, quail, qualm, qualm of conscience, qualmishness, quarter rest, quiet spell, recess, recoil, red tape, red-tapeism, red-tapery, relief, remission, reprieve, respite, rest, resting point, retardance, retardation, retreat, rising terminal, sandhi, scruple, scrupulosity, scrupulousness, segno, semicolon, shilly-shally, shrink, shrinking, shy, shy at, shyness, sign, signature, sixteenth rest, slow-up, slowdown, slowness, slur, spell, stand-down, stay, stay of execution, stick at, stickle, stickling, stop, stop for breath, stop to consider, stoppage, straddle the fence, strain, strain at, surcease, suspend, suspension, swell, symbol, take a break, take a recess, take a rest, take five, take ten, take time out, tea break, tempo mark, terminal, think twice about, tie, tie-up, time lag, time off, time out, time signature, truce, vacation, vinculum, wait, waver, wince, withdraw, word boundary, yield