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| pause [ pawz ] |
verb (past and past participle paused, present participle paus·ing, 3rd person present singular paus·es) |
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| Definition: |
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1. intransitive verb stop briefly: to stop doing something briefly before continuing
  He paused for a moment and then went on eating.
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2. intransitive verb stay briefly: to halt somewhere for a short time
I paused to glance into a shop window.
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3. intransitive verb hesitate: to wait intentionally for a short period before doing or saying something
Selena paused. There was no easy way of saying what had to be said.
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4. transitive verb cause something to pause: to cause an electronic or mechanical device to stop operating temporarily, e.g. by pressing a pause button
Can you pause the video for a minute?
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noun (plural paus·es) |
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| Definition: |
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1. brief stop: a temporary break in an activity
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2. short silence: a brief moment of silence between words, sounds, or musical notes
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3. hesitation: a brief moment of hesitation or uncertainty before something happens or is done
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4. pausing mechanism: a control on an electronic or mechanical device such as a video recorder that brings it temporarily to a halt
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5. musical symbol for time extension: a musical symbol indicating that a note, chord, or rest is to be held longer than the indicated time value. It is represented by a period with an upside-down "u" above it.
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6. poetry
Same as caesura (sense 1)
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| [15th century. Directly or via French< Latin pausa "stopping, cessation" < Greek pausis< pauein "stop, cease"] |
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| paus·al adjective |
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give somebody pause to make somebody hesitate or reconsider
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