/pɔːz/, /pɔz/, /pɑz/
OriginFrom Middle French pause, from Latin pausa, from Ancient Greek παῦσις (paûsis), from Ancient Greek παύω (paúō, “stop”), of uncertain origin. Doublet of pausa.
- intransitiveTo take a temporary rest, take a break for a short period after an effort.
- transitiveTo stop (an activity) for a while.
“The general public could therefore have been forgiven for thinking that work on the new station had stopped. But pausing work on an active construction site of this size is not straightforward.”
- intransitiveTo interrupt an activity and wait.
“When telling the scary story, he paused for effect.”
“Tarry, pause a day or two.”
“pausing a while thus to herself she mused”
- intransitiveTo hesitate; to hold back; to delay.
“Why doth the Jew pause? Take thy forfeiture.”
- transitiveTo halt the play or playback of, temporarily, so that it can be resumed from the same point.
“to pause a song, a video, or a computer game”
“Press Start at any time to pause the game.”
- intransitive, obsoleteTo consider; to reflect.
- A temporary stop or rest; an intermission of action; interruption; suspension; cessation.
“If the afternoon was fine they strolled together in the park, very slowly, and with pauses to draw breath wherever the ground sloped upward. The slightest effort made the patient cough.”
- A short time for relaxing and doing something else.
- figurativelyHesitation; suspense; doubt.
“to take pause” — to hesitate
“to give pause” — to cause to hesitate
“And like a man to double buſsines bound, / I ſtand in pauſe where I ſhall firſt beginne, […]”
- In writing and printing, a mark indicating the place and nature of an arrest of voice in reading; a punctuation mark.
“Teach the pupil to mind the pauses.”
- A break or paragraph in writing.
“He [Paul] is full of the Matter he treats and writes with Warmth, which uſually neglects Method, and thoſe Partitions and Pauſes which Men educated in the Schools of Rhetoricians uſually obſerve.”
- A sign indicating continuance of a note or rest.
- alt-ofAlternative letter-case form of Pause (“a button that pauses or resumes something”).
- A button whose functions are pausing and resuming something, such as a DVD player, a video game or a computer.
- slangUsed immediately after a statement to indicate that there was no innuendo or homosexual meaning intended, especially when such a meaning is a reasonable interpretation.
Formspauses(present, singular, third-person) · pausing(participle, present) · paused(participle, past) · paused(past) · pauses(plural) · Pauses(plural) · pause(alternative)