Dictionary
Thesaurus
Reference
Translate
Web
Related Searches
on Ask.com
Synonyms
Nearby Entries
race - 22 dictionary results
Horse Racing Results
 All About Horse Racing Results Horse Racing Results and Much More!
 Peeplo.com/Top_Results

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)

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

Race

Race\, v. t. To raze. [Obs.] --Spenser.

Race

Race\, n. [OF. ra["i]z, L. radix, -icis. See Radix.] A root. "A race or two of ginger." --Shak.

Race ginger, ginger in the root, or not pulverized.

Race

Race\, n. [F. race; cf. Pr. & Sp. raza, It. razza; all from OHG. reiza line, akin to E. write. See Write.]

1. The descendants of a common ancestor; a family, tribe, people, or nation, believed or presumed to belong to the same stock; a lineage; a breed.

The whole race of mankind. --Shak.

Whence the long race of Alban fathers come. --Dryden.

Note: Naturalists and ehnographers divide mankind into several distinct varieties, or races. Cuvier refers them all to three, Pritchard enumerates seven, Agassiz eight, Pickering describes eleven. One of the common classifications is that of Blumenbach, who makes five races: the Caucasian, or white race, to which belong the greater part of the European nations and those of Western Asia; the Mongolian, or yellow race, occupying Tartary, China, Japan, etc.; the Ethiopian, or negro race, occupying most of Africa (except the north), Australia, Papua, and other Pacific Islands; the American, or red race, comprising the Indians of North and South America; and the Malayan, or brown race, which occupies the islands of the Indian Archipelago, etc. Many recent writers classify the Malay and American races as branches of the Mongolian. See Illustration in Appendix.

2. Company; herd; breed.

For do but note a wild and wanton herd, Or race of youthful and unhandled colts, Fetching mad bounds. --Shak.

3. (Bot.) A variety of such fixed character that it may be propagated by seed.

4. Peculiar flavor, taste, or strength, as of wine; that quality, or assemblage of qualities, which indicates origin or kind, as in wine; hence, characteristic flavor; smack. "A race of heaven." --Shak.

Is it [the wine] of the right race ? --Massinqer.

5. Hence, characteristic quality or disposition. [Obs.]

And now I give my sensual race the rein. --Shak.

Some . . . great race of fancy or judgment. --Sir W. Temple.

Syn: Lineage; line; family; house; breed; offspring; progeny; issue.

Race

Race\, n. [OE. ras, res, rees, AS. r[=ae]s a rush, running; akin to Icel. r[=a]s course, race. [root]118.]

1. A progress; a course; a movement or progression.

2. Esp., swift progress; rapid course; a running.

The flight of many birds is swifter than the race of any beasts. --Bacon.

3. Hence: The act or process of running in competition; a contest of speed in any way, as in running, riding, driving, skating, rowing, sailing; in the plural, usually, a meeting for contests in the running of horses; as, he attended the races.

The race is not to the swift. --Eccl. ix. 11.

I wield the gauntlet, and I run the race. --Pope.

4. Competitive action of any kind, especially when prolonged; hence, career; course of life.

My race of glory run, and race of shame. --Milton.

5. A strong or rapid current of water, or the channel or passage for such a current; a powerful current or heavy sea, sometimes produced by the meeting of two tides; as, the Portland Race; the Race of Alderney.

6. The current of water that turns a water wheel, or the channel in which it flows; a mill race.

Note: The part of the channel above the wheel is sometimes called the headrace, the part below, the tailrace.

7. (Mach.) A channel or guide along which a shuttle is driven back and forth, as in a loom, sewing machine, etc.

Race cloth, a cloth worn by horses in racing, having pockets to hold the weights prescribed.

Race course. (a) The path, generally circular or elliptical, over which a race is run. (b) Same as Race way, below.

Race cup, a cup given as a prize to the victor in a race.

Race glass, a kind of field glass.

Race horse. (a) A horse that runs in competition; specifically, a horse bred or kept for running races. (b) A breed of horses remarkable for swiftness in running. (c) (Zo["o]l.) The steamer duck. (d) (Zo["o]l.) A mantis.

Race knife, a cutting tool with a blade that is hooked at the point, for marking outlines, on boards or metals, as by a pattern, -- used in shipbuilding.

Race saddle, a light saddle used in racing.

Race track. Same as Race course (a), above.

Race way, the canal for the current that drives a water wheel.

Race

Race\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Raced; p. pr. & vb. n. Racing.]

1. To run swiftly; to contend in a race; as, the animals raced over the ground; the ships raced from port to port.

2. (Steam Mach.) To run too fast at times, as a marine engine or screw, when the screw is lifted out of water by the action of a heavy sea.

Race

Race\, v. t. 1. To cause to contend in race; to drive at high speed; as, to race horses.

2. To run a race with.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Cite This Source
Language Translation for : race
Spanish: carrera,
German: das Rennen,
Japanese: 競走
More Translations »

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
Cite This Source

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

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
race   (rās)  Pronunciation Key 
    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.
  2. Any of several extensive human populations associated with broadly defined regions of the world and distinguished from one another on the basis of inheritable physical characteristics, traditionally conceived as including such traits as pigmentation, hair texture, and facial features. Because the number of genes responsible for such physical variations is tiny in comparison to the size of the human genome and because genetic variation among members of a traditionally recognized racial group is generally as great as between two such groups, most scientists now consider race to be primarily a social rather than a scientific concept.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

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

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
Cite This Source

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.
Cite This Source
Search another word or see race on Thesaurus | Reference
Horse Racing Results
 All About Horse Racing Results Horse Racing Results and Much More!
 Peeplo.com/Top_Results