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Race

 - 15 dictionary results
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race

1  [reys] noun, verb, raced, rac⋅ing.
Use Race in a Sentence
–noun
1. a contest of speed, as in running, riding, driving, or sailing.
2. races, a series of races, usually of horses or dogs, run at a set time over a regular course: They spent a day at the races.
3. any contest or competition, esp. to achieve superiority: the arms race; the presidential race.
4. urgent need, responsibility, effort, etc., as when time is short or a solution is imperative: the race to find an effective vaccine.
5. onward movement; an onward or regular course.
6. the course of time.
7. the course of life or a part of life.
8. Geology.
a. a strong or rapid current of water, as in the sea or a river.
b. the channel or bed of such a current or of any stream.
9. an artificial channel leading water to or from a place where its energy is utilized.
10. the current of water in such a channel.
11. Also called raceway. Machinery. a channel, groove, or the like, for sliding or rolling a part or parts, as the balls of a ball bearing.
12. Textiles.
a. the float between adjacent rows of pile.
b. race plate.
–verb (used without object)
13. to engage in a contest of speed; run a race.
14. to run horses or dogs in races; engage in or practice horse racing or dog racing.
15. to run, move, or go swiftly.
16. (of an engine, wheel, etc.) to run with undue or uncontrolled speed when the load is diminished without corresponding diminution of fuel, force, etc.
–verb (used with object)
17. to run a race against; try to beat in a contest of speed: I'll race you to the water.
18. to enter (a horse, car, track team, or the like) in a race or races.
19. to cause to run, move, or go at high speed: to race a motor.
Origin:
1250–1300; (n.) ME ras(e) < ON rās a running, race (c. OE rǣs a running); (v.) ME rasen, deriv. of the n. (cf. ON rasa to rush headlong)
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race

2  [reys]
–noun
1. a group of persons related by common descent or heredity.
2. a population so related.
3. Anthropology.
a. any of the traditional divisions of humankind, the commonest being the Caucasian, Mongoloid, and Negro, characterized by supposedly distinctive and universal physical characteristics: no longer in technical use.
b. an arbitrary classification of modern humans, sometimes, esp. formerly, based on any or a combination of various physical characteristics, as skin color, facial form, or eye shape, and now frequently based on such genetic markers as blood groups.
c. a human population partially isolated reproductively from other populations, whose members share a greater degree of physical and genetic similarity with one another than with other humans.
4. a group of tribes or peoples forming an ethnic stock: the Slavic race.
5. any people united by common history, language, cultural traits, etc.: the Dutch race.
6. the human race or family; humankind: Nuclear weapons pose a threat to the race.
7. Zoology. a variety; subspecies.
8. a natural kind of living creature: the race of fishes.
9. any group, class, or kind, esp. of persons: Journalists are an interesting race.
10. the characteristic taste or flavor of wine.
–adjective
11. of or pertaining to the races of humankind.
Origin:
1490–1500; < F < It razza, of obscure orig.

Synonyms:
1. tribe, clan, family, stock, line, breed. Race, people, nation are terms for a large body of persons who may be thought of as a unit because of common characteristics. In the traditional biological and anthropological systems of classification race refers to a group of persons who share such genetically transmitted traits as skin color, hair texture, and eye shape or color: the white race; the yellow race. In reference to classifying the human species, race is now under dispute among modern biologists and anthropologists. Some feel that the term has no biological validity; others use it to specify only a partially isolated reproductive population whose members share a considerable degree of genetic similarity. In certain broader or less technical senses race is sometimes used interchangeably with people. People refers to a body of persons united usually by common interests, ideals, or culture but sometimes also by a common history, language, or ethnic character: We are one people; the peoples of the world; the Swedish people. Nation refers to a body of persons living under an organized government or rule, occupying a defined area, and acting as a unit in matters of peace and war: the English nation.

race

3  [reys]
–noun
a ginger root.
Origin:
1540–50; < MF rais < L rādīc- (s. of rādīx) root 1

Race

  [reys]
–noun
Cape, a cape at the SE extremity of Newfoundland.

race plate

 
–noun
a metallic, plastic, or wooden strip directly in front of the reed on the lay of a loom, along which the shuttle travels in its passage through the shed.
Also, raceplate.
Also called race.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To Race
race 1   (rās)   
n.  

  1. A local geographic or global human population distinguished as a more or less distinct group by genetically transmitted physical characteristics.

  2. A group of people united or classified together on the basis of common history, nationality, or geographic distribution: the German race.

  3. A genealogical line; a lineage.

  4. Humans considered as a group.

  5. Biology

    1. An interbreeding, usually geographically isolated population of organisms differing from other populations of the same species in the frequency of hereditary traits. A race that has been given formal taxonomic recognition is known as a subspecies.

    2. A breed or strain, as of domestic animals.

  6. A distinguishing or characteristic quality, such as the flavor of a wine.


[French, from Old French, from Old Italian razza, race, lineage.]
Usage Note: The notion of race is nearly as problematic from a scientific point of view as it is from a social one. European physical anthropologists of the 17th and 18th centuries proposed various systems of racial classifications based on such observable characteristics as skin color, hair type, body proportions, and skull measurements, essentially codifying the perceived differences among broad geographic populations of humans. The traditional terms for these populations—Caucasoid (or Caucasian), Mongoloid, Negroid, and in some systems Australoid—are now controversial in both technical and nontechnical usage, and in some cases they may well be considered offensive. (Caucasian does retain a certain currency in American English, but it is used almost exclusively to mean "white" or "European" rather than "belonging to the Caucasian race," a group that includes a variety of peoples generally categorized as nonwhite.) The biological aspect of race is described today not in observable physical features but rather in such genetic characteristics as blood groups and metabolic processes, and the groupings indicated by these factors seldom coincide very neatly with those put forward by earlier physical anthropologists. Citing this and other points—such as the fact that a person who is considered black in one society might be nonblack in another—many cultural anthropologists now consider race to be more a social or mental construct than an objective biological fact.
race 2   (rās)   
n.  

  1. Sports

    1. A competition of speed, as in running or riding.

    2. races A series of such competitions held at a specified time on a regular course: a fan of the dog races.

    3. A strong or swift current of water.

    4. The channel of such a current.

    5. An artificial channel built to transport water and use its energy. Also called raceway.

  2. An extended competition in which participants struggle like runners to be the winner: the presidential race.

  3. Steady or rapid onward movement: the race of time.

    1. A strong or swift current of water.

    2. The channel of such a current.

    3. An artificial channel built to transport water and use its energy. Also called raceway.

  5. A groovelike part of a machine in which a moving part slides or rolls.

  6. See slipstream.

v.   raced, rac·ing, rac·es

v.   intr.

  1. Sports To compete in a contest of speed.

  2. To move rapidly or at top speed: We raced home. My heart was racing with fear.

  3. To run too rapidly due to decreased resistance or unnecessary provision of fuel: adjusted the idle to keep the engine from racing.

v.   tr.

  1. Sports

    1. To compete against in a race.

    2. To cause to compete in a race: She races horses for a living.

  2. To transport rapidly or at top speed; rush: raced the injured motorist to the hospital.

  3. To cause (an engine with the gears disengaged, for example) to run swiftly or too swiftly.


[Middle English ras, from Old Norse rās, rush, running; see ers- in Indo-European roots.]
Race   (rās)   
A promontory of southeast Newfoundland, Canada, on the coast of the Avalon Peninsula.
slip·stream   (slĭp'strēm')   
n.  

  1. The turbulent flow of air driven backward by the propeller or propellers of an aircraft. Also called race2.

  2. The area of reduced pressure or forward suction produced by and immediately behind a fast-moving object as it moves through air or water.

intr.v.   slip·streamed, slip·stream·ing, slip·streams
To drive or cycle in the slipstream of a vehicle ahead.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Word Origin & History

race  (1)
"act of running," c.1300, from O.N. ras "running, rush (of water)," cognate with O.E. ræs, which became M.E. resen "attack, incursion," but did not survive into Mod.Eng. Both O.N. and O.E. are from P.Gmc. *ræs- (cf. M.Du. rasen "to rave, rage," Ger. rasen). Originally a northern word, it became general in Eng. c.1550. Meaning "contest of speed" first recorded 1513 (the verb in this sense is from 1672). Race-horse is from 1626. Meaning "strong current of water" is from 1375, possibly influenced by O.Fr. raz, which had a similar meaning, and is probably from Breton raz "a strait, narrow channel;" this Fr. source also may have given race its meaning of "channel of a stream" (especially an artificial one to a mill), recorded from 1565. The verb, in ref. to an engine, is from 1862.

race  (2)
"people of common descent," c.1500, from M.Fr. razza "race, breed, lineage," possibly from It. razza, of unknown origin (cf. Sp., Port. raza). Original senses in Eng. included "wines with characteristic flavor" (1520), "group of people with common occupation" (c.1500), and "generation" (c.1560). Meaning "tribe, nation, or people regarded as of common stock" is from c.1600. Modern meaning of "one of the great divisions of mankind based on physical peculiarities" is from 1774 (though even among anthropologists there never has been an accepted classification of these). Klein suggests these derive from Arabic ra's "head, beginning, origin" (cf. Heb. rosh). O.E. þeode meant both "race" and "language;" as a verb, geþeodan, it meant "to unite, to join." Racial is first attested 1862. Race-riot attested from 1890.
"Just being a Negro doesn't qualify you to understand the race situation any more than being sick makes you an expert on medicine." [Dick Gregory, 1964]
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: race
Pronunciation: 'rAs
Function: noun
1 a : an actually or potentially interbreeding group within a species; also : ataxonomic category (as a subspecies) representing such a group b : BREED
2 : one of thethree, four, or five divisions based on inherited physical characteristics into which human beings are usually divided
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
Cite This Source
Medical Dictionary

race (rās)
n.

  1. A local geographic or global human population distinguished as a more or less distinct group by genetically transmitted physical characteristics.

  2. A population of organisms differing from others of the same species in the frequency of hereditary traits; a subspecies.

  3. A breed or strain, as of domestic animals.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Cite This Source
Computing Dictionary

RACE programming
Requirements Acquisition and Controlled Evolution.
(1995-11-21)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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Idioms & Phrases

race

see rat race; slow but sure (steady wins the race).

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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