race

1. (intransitive) To take part in a race (in the sense of a contest).Examples: "The drivers were racing around the track."; "Honesty raced up six lengths in front of Wandering Minstrel, turned, then raced past for the second, and lost his place at the hedge; some work followed to the plantation, but Honesty was always the faster in the racing stretches, and won easily."; ""I cannot wait to race in front of the amazing home crowd," she added."intransitive

2. (transitive) To compete against in a race (contest).Examples: "I raced him to the car, but he was there first, so he got to ride shotgun."; "[…]a fresh fox popped out of a pit, and they raced him to Cherrington, where hounds were stopped at dark[…]"; "He pulled it down and saw Tech's full-back closing in. Counting on his own fresh condition, Jimmy raced him toward the sidelines, and got around him just in time to prevent being forced out. The goal was waiting for him twenty yards away, and to the accompaniment of a deafening shout from the stands he placed the pigskin across the goal line."transitive

3. (intransitive) To move or drive at high speed; to hurry or speed.Examples: "As soon as it was time to go home, he raced for the door."; "Her heart was racing as she peered into the dimly lit room."; "The horse raced past the barn fell."Synonyms: rush, shift, zip, zoomintransitive

4. (intransitive, of a motor) To run rapidly when not engaged to a transmission.Examples: ""My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself to pieces because it is not connected up with the work for which it was built.""; "He put the transmission into drive and pressed the gas. The engine raced and the motor home rocked, gently, but did not move forward."intransitive

1. A group of sentient beings, particularly people, distinguished by common ancestry, heritage or characteristics (see Wikipedia's article on historical definitions of race):Examples: "A treaty was concluded between the race of elves and the race of men."; "There are two distinct races of gods known to Norse mythology[.]"; "Imagine a race of aliens that develops on a dimly lit world perpetually shrouded in clouds so that vision would be less useful for survival than on Earth."Synonyms: breed, strain, kind, lineage, people, varietycountableuncountable

2. A group of organisms distinguished by common characteristics; often an informal infraspecific rank in taxonomy, below species:Examples: "[I]nnumerable popingayes of ſundry kindes are found chattering in the groues of thoſe fenny places. […] For in the raſe of this large lande, Colonus [Christopher Columbus] him ſelfe brought and ſent to the courte a greate number of euery kynde, the which it was lawfull for all the people to beholde, and are yet dayly browght in like manner."Synonyms: kind, strain, varietycountableuncountable

3. A group of organisms distinguished by common characteristics; often an informal infraspecific rank in taxonomy, below species:Examples: "Two races are certainly valid. The Atlantic race (P. v. vitulina) is distinguishable from the Pacific race (P. v. richardi Gray, 1864) by skull characters."; "A population that differs signicatly from other populations belonging to the same species is referred to as a geographic race or subspecies. Subspecies are separated from other subspecies by distance and geographic barriers that prevent the exchange of individuals, as opposed to the genetically based "intrinsic isolating mechanisms" that hold species apart."Synonyms: kind, strain, variety, ecospecies, ecotype, subspeciescountableuncountable

4. A group of organisms distinguished by common characteristics; often an informal infraspecific rank in taxonomy, below species:Examples: "Nevertheless, as our varieties certainly do occasionally revert in some of their characters to ancestral forms, it seems to me not improbable, that if we could succeed in naturalising, or were to cultivate, during many generations, the several races, for instance, of the cabbage, in very poor soil (in which case, however, some effect would have to be attributed to the direct action of the poor soil), that they would to a large extent, or even wholly, revert to the wild aboriginal stock."; "Tree races develop not only in different latitudes, but also at different altitudes and within mountainous regions. Since climate changes markedly with altitude as well as latitude, both kinds of development are included in the term climatic races. In addition, soil or site races may develop in areas similar climatically but characterized by different soil or site conditions."; "Our genetic evaluation suggests that the morphologically distinct race (Dolores River) is more closely related to the type materials than the ecologically distinct, high-elevation race."Synonyms: kind, strain, varietycountableuncountable

5. A group of organisms distinguished by common characteristics; often an informal infraspecific rank in taxonomy, below species:Examples: "For do but note a wild and wanton herd, / Or race of youthful and unhandled colts, / Fetching mad bounds."; "They have another breed, called the Dunlop cows, which are allowed to be the best race for yielding milk in Great Britain or Ireland, not only for large quantities, but also for richness in quality."; "Great St. Bernard Dog—This race is nearly allied to the Newfoundland Dog in form, stature, hair, and colors; but the head and ears are like that of a Water Spaniel."Synonyms: kind, strain, varietycountableuncountable

6. A group of organisms distinguished by common characteristics; often an informal infraspecific rank in taxonomy, below species:Examples: "Now Mary MacDonald of the Plant Breeding Institute at Maris Lane, Cambridge, has made an interesting study which has duplicated the conditions under which new races arise. And she has produced at least one new fungal race."; "The type of microorganisms is a very important factor influencing the quality of cider. Yeast of various producers and races result in different taste and flavor."Synonyms: kind, strain, variety, pathotype, pathovarcountableuncountable

1. (obsolete) To pass down certain phenotypic traits to offspring.Examples: "D'Hervieux obſerves that it is uſual to put the female canary bird to the male goldfinch, linnet, or the like, to breed; but for his part, he ſhould chuſe to put the male canary-bird to the female goldfinch, linnet, &c. becauſe the male uſually races more than the female, i. e. the young ones take more after the male than after the female."Synonyms: come true, breed trueobsolete

1. (botany) A rhizome or root, especially of ginger.Examples: "I must have saffron to color the warden pies; mace; dates, none—that's out of my note; nutmegs, seven; a race or two of ginger, but that I may beg; four pounds of prunes, and as many of raisins o' th' sun."; "They have onions and garlick, and some herbs and small roots for sallads; and in the southernmoft parts, ginger growing almost in every place; the large races whereof are there very excellently well preserved, as we may know by our tasting them in England."; "On the third day after this second boiling, pour all the syrup into a pan, put the races of ginger with it, and boil it up until the syrup adheres to the spoon."Synonyms: rhizome, rootstalk

1. (archaic) To sharpen (a grindstone) by scraping its surface.Examples: "Another source of dust arises from the "hanging" and "racing" of the grindstones. […] This is effected by holding a bar of steel against it whilst it is slowly turned, and is known as "racing" the stone."; "The cracks, owing to the custom of sending the stones with rough surfaces from the quarry, are not so clearly visible until the grinders have 'raced' the stones, or, in other words, smoothed the sides and grinding faces."; "Racing means the turning up, cutting or dressing of a revolving grindstone at the factory before the grindstone is brought into use for the first time."archaictransitive

2. Alternative spelling of raze.Examples: "Buckles and agglettes at vnwares, ſhall race his bowe, a thinge both euill for the fight, ⁊ perillous for freatinge."; "Paine in a horſſes teeth commeth either from pride and corruption of blood, or els from cold rhums, […] the cure is, vvith a ſharp knife to race him alongſt his gummes, cloſe vnder his teeth, both of the inſide and outſide: and then to rubbe them all ouer, either vvith pepper & ſalt vvel mingled together, or vvith claret vvine and pepper heated vpon the fire, […]"; "Then File one edge very ſtraight by laying a ſtraight Ruler juſt vvithin the edge of it, and dravving or raceing vvith a point of hardned Steel a bright line by the ſide of the Ruler: […]"Synonyms: carve, incise, snithe, carve, chive, cut, incide, inciseWest-Countrytransitive

3. Alternative spelling of raze.Examples: "For his further ſecuritie he [Don Roderigo] diſarmed his ſubjects; ſuch Caſtles and ſtrengths as hee vvas jealous of vvere raced, […]"; "[…] Lyſander the General of the Lacedemonians, […] novv reduces all the Dominions of the Athenians, takes the City, races their VValls, ruins their VVorks, and changes the Form of their Government; […]"; "[Edward I of England] cauſed Henry Cobham, […] to race the caſtle that Robert de Crevequer had erected, becauſe Crevequer (that vvas the ovvner of it, and heire to Robert) vvas of the number of the nobles that moved and mainteined vvare againſt him; […]"Synonyms: annihilate, eradicate, destroy, annihilate, aerosolize, atomize, benothing, bewreckobsoletetransitive

4. Alternative spelling of raze.Examples: "[T]he king purſude / And furrovved through the thickned troopes. As vvhen tvvo chaced Bores / Turne head gainſt kennels of bold hounds, and race vvay through their gores: […]"; "RACER, or ſward-cutter, a cutting implement uſed in racing out or cutting through the ſurface of graſs ſward, dividing it into proper widths, lengths, and thickneſs[…]"Synonyms: annihilate, eradicate, destroy, annihilate, aerosolize, atomize, benothing, bewreckobsoleteraretransitive

5. Alternative spelling of raze.Examples: "Item an old white sattin dublett laced all over with a small silver lace in a worke raced and cutt betweene"Synonyms: annihilate, eradicate, destroy, annihilate, aerosolize, atomize, benothing, bewreckobsoletetransitive

6. Alternative spelling of raze.Examples: "This indenture is raced all the worlde may ſe it: Ceſte indenture eſt faulcée tout le monde le peult veoyr."; "But I vvill take another order novv, / And race th'eternall Regiſter of time: […]"Synonyms: efface, expunct, expunge, oblivionizeobsoletetransitive