pace

Noun (1)

pace (plural paces)

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.
3. A manner of walking, running or dancing; the rate or style of how someone moves with their feet.
   • We set off at a round pace.
   • 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 Denmark”, in BBC Sport
4. Any of various gaits of a horse, specifically a 2-beat, lateral gait.
5. 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 from the foreſt nye.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 14, page 311
   • 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, →ISBN

   Synonyms:

   tempo, rhythm

6. 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.
7. (collective) A group of donkeys (asses).
   • […] 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, The Macmillan Company, published 1952, page 29
   • A pace of donkeys fans out in different directions.2006 November 9, “Drop the dead donkeys”, in The Economist
8. (obsolete) One's journey or route.
9. (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, →OCLC
10. (obsolete) An aisle in a church.

Adjective

pace (not comparable)

1. Describing a bowler who bowls fast balls.

Verb

pace (third-person singular simple present paces, present participle pacing, simple past and past participle paced)

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 his van, and, standing at an open window, I more than once heard the fireman's...1955 January, R. S. McNaught, “From the Severn to the Mersey by Great Western”, in Railway Magazine, page 19
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 Industry, London, page 70

   Synonyms:

   set the pace

4. To measure by walking.

Preposition

UK/ˈpætʃeɪ/

pace

1. (formal) With all due respect to.
   • She is marvelous here, but he (pace many critics) is no bumpkin1998, Harold Bloom, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human

Noun (2)

pace (plural paces)

1. Synonym of Easter.

   Synonyms:

   Easter

Proper noun (1) capitalized: PACE

PACE

1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
2. (UK, abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.
3. (US, abbreviation, acronym, labor union) Acronym of Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Pace

Pace

1. A surname.
2. A census-designated place in Santa Rosa County, Florida, United States.
3. A town in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States.