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pause

(pôz)

v. paused, paus·ing, paus·es

v.intr.

1. To cease or suspend an action temporarily: She paused in her piano exercises to listen for the baby.

2. To hesitate: He paused before replying.

3. To linger; tarry: We paused for a while under the huge oak tree.

v.tr.

To cease or suspend the action of temporarily; stop for an interim: paused the printer to add more paper; paused the DVD with the remote.

a. A break, stop, or rest, often for a calculated purpose or effect: After a dramatic pause, the lawyer finished her summation.

b. A delay or suspended reaction, as from uncertainty; a hesitation: After a pause the audience broke into cheers.

c. Delay or hesitation: spoke without pause for an hour.

d. Reason for hesitation: The immensity of the task gives one pause.

a. Music A sign, such as a fermata, indicating that a note or rest is to be held.

b. A break or rest in a line of poetry; a caesura.

3. A control mechanism on an audio or video player that halts the playing of a recording and permits playing to be easily resumed from the same point.

[From Middle English, pause, from Old French, from Latin pausa, from Greek pausis, from pauein, to stop.]

Synonyms: pause, intermission, recess, respite, suspension
These nouns denote a temporary stop, as in activity: a short pause in the conversation; a concert with a 15-minute intermission; the legislature's summer recess; toiling without respite; a suspension of work.

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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