lacing

/ˈleɪsɪŋ/

lacing is the present participle and gerund of lace.

Noun

lacing (plural lacings)

That with which something is laced.
- A light lacing of rum goes into the cake batter.
- A light lacing of paracord binds the pack together.
The tied or threaded laces that form a netlike pattern.
A beating as punishment; a hiding.
- The Nelson family chauffeur, Ed, told me that Steven was missing. Ed was angry that the kid had run off, and he said when he got his hands on him he was going to give him a good lacing[…]1964, Tom Pyle, Beth Day Romulo, Pocantico: Fifty Years on the Rockefeller Domain, page 168
Lagging, or cross-pieces placed to prevent ore from falling into a passage.
The cords by which the boards of a book are fastened to the back.
The knee of the head, or lace-piece, a piece of compass or knee timber secured to the back of the figurehead.

Meaning of lace

Verb

lace (third-person singular simple present laces, present participle lacing, simple past and past participle laced)

(ergative, transitive) To fasten (something) with laces.
- When Jenny's stays are newly laced.1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Alma: Or, The Progress of the Mind”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC
(transitive) To interweave items.
- to lace one's fingers together
Synonyms:

entwine, interlace, interweave, betwine, braid, entwist, interthread, intertwine, intertwist, lock
(transitive) To interweave the spokes of a bicycle wheel.
- For these and other reasons, you may want to lace a new rim onto an existing hub, or vice versa. For some reason, probably because of the maze and complex angles of spokes, lacing and building a wheel has for years been a virtual mystery to even skilled home bike mechanics.1973 March, Eugene A. Sloane, “How to build and lace a bicycle wheel”, in Popular Mechanics, page 21
(transitive) To beat; to lash; to make stripes on.
- I'll Lace your Coat for ye.1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC
(transitive) To adorn with narrow strips or braids of some decorative material.
- cloth laced with silver
(figuratively, transitive) To intersperse or diversify with something.
- The throne speech opening the New Democrat government’s second legislative session Dec. 2 was a modest document featuring caution and pragmatism laced with a few tidbits of democratic socialism.1982 December 11, Frances Russell, “Economic performance buoys Pawley’s position”, in The Vancouver Sun (The Weekend Sun), Vancouver, BC, page A6

See all 12 meanings of lace

Forms of lacing

plural	lacings

Words formed from lacing

Phrases with lacing

Words that rhyme with lacing

2 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about lacing

What does lacing mean?: Lacing means that with which something is laced.
What is lacing the present participle and gerund of?: Lacing is the present participle and gerund of lace.
What part of speech is lacing?: Lacing is a noun.
How do you pronounce lacing?: Lacing is pronounced /ˈleɪsɪŋ/.
What is the plural of lacing?: The plural of lacing is lacings.

Words near lacing in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: lacing (page history and authors); lace (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-lacing.wav.

Cite this entry: “lacing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lacing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.