race
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: rās
ipa: /ɹeɪs/
rhymes: -eɪs
Forms: form: races
Etymology: From Middle English race, partially from Old English rǣs (“a race, swift or violent running, rush, onset”), from Proto-West Germanic *rās; and partially from Old Norse rás (“a running, race”); both from Proto-Germanic *rēsō (“a course”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁s- (“to flow, rush”). Cognate with Middle Low German râs ("a strong current"; whence German Low German Raas (“mad rush, rage, fury”)), Dutch ras (“a strong whirling current”), Danish ræs, Norwegian and Swedish ras, Norwegian rås.
Senses: examples: text: Several horses ran in a horse race: the first one to reach the finishing post won.
text: The race to cure cancer
text: The race around the park was won by Johnny, who ran faster than the others.
text: We had a race to see who could finish the book the quickest.
text: I returned, and saw vnder the Sunne, That the race is not to the swift, nor the battell to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of vnderstanding, nor yet fauour to men of skil; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ecclesiastes 9:11:
text: "Behold that rival here! / "The race by vigour, not by vaunts is won; / "So take the hindmost, Hell."—He said, and run.
ref: 1743, Alexander Pope, The Dunciad, London: M. Cooper, book 2, page 82, lines 58–60:
text: After days of intensifying pressure from runners, politicians and the general public to call off the New York City Marathon in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, city officials and the event’s organizers decided Friday afternoon to cancel the race.
ref: 2012 November 2, Ken Belson, “After Days of Pressure, Marathon Is Off”, in The New York Times:
glosses: A contest between people, animals, vehicles, etc. where the goal is to be the first to reach some objective.
examples: text: The flight of many birds is swifter than the race of any beasts.
ref: 1631, Francis [Bacon], “VII. Century. [Experiments Solitary touching the Quicknesse of Motion in Birds.]”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC, page 166:
text: Hence the rapid race / Of light, and lustre from th' effusive sun
ref: 1805, Good, John Mason, transl., The Nature of Things, volume 2, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, translation of De rerum natura by Titus Lucretius Carus, book 4, page 33, lines 190–191:
text: And above all, it is an age of activity and enterprise, an age of new discoveries and new deviltries, an age of magnetic telegraphs and Mississippi bonds, and it would be indeed odd if, in the swift race of progress, the rogue did not keep his natural station in the van of the movement.
ref: 1847 December, “The Literature of Humbug”, in The Young American's Magazine, volume 1, page 318:
synonyms: dash
running
rush
glosses: Swift progress; rapid motion; an instance of moving or driving at high speed.
examples: text: Many problems of oscillations and races are solved by this arrangement.
ref: 1989, R. Raghuram, Computer Simulation of Electronic Circuits, New Delhi: Wiley Eastern, →ISBN, page 181:
text: Because a race by definition depends on the timing being just wrong, you could test your program any number of times, never observe any misbehavior, and still have a user run into the problem.¶ This occurrence is not just a theoretical possibility: Real programs have race bugs and real users have encountered them, sometimes with consequences that have literally been fatal.
ref: 1999, Max Hailperin, Barbara Kaiser, Karl Knight, “Java, Applets, and Concurrency”, in Concrete Abstractions, Brooks/Cole Publishing, →ISBN, page 622:
text: As the name implies, a race condition means that two processes are competing within the same time interval, and the race affects the integrity or correctness of the computing tasks.
ref: 2012, Charles P. Pfleeger, Shari Lawrence Pfleeger, Analyzing Computer Security, Prentice Hall, page 79:
topics: business
computing
electrical-engineering
electricity
electromagnetism
electronics
energy
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
sciences
synonyms: race condition
race hazard
glosses: A race condition; a bug or problem that occurs when two or more components attempt to use the same resource at the same time.
examples: text: A race of wicked acts / Shall flow out of my anger, and o’erspread / The world’s wide face[.]
ref: 1603, Ben Jonson, Sejanus His Fall, act 2, scene 2:
text: An offensive war is made, which is unjust in the aggressor; the prosecution and race of the war carrieth the defendant to invade the ancient patrimony of the first aggressor, who is now turned defendant; shall he sit down, and not put himself in defence?
ref: 1624, Francis Bacon, “Considerations Touching a War with Spain”, in Basil Montagu, editor, The Works of Francis Bacon, volume 5, William Pickering, published 1826, page 240:
synonyms: word: course
word: procedure
word: process
word: train
word: array
word: chain
word: consecution
word: sequence
word: series
word: string
word: succession
word: train
glosses: A sequence of events; a progressive movement toward a goal.
examples: text: Here are in these seas two dangerous races, the one called St. Alban's, the other Portland Race.
ref: 1893, “Remarks upon the Way from Abingdon to Southamption, and other Places”, in The Manuscripts of His Grace the Duke of Portland, volume 2, London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, page 288:
text: The existing analysis and program for the propeller-rudder interaction has been updated incorporating all the improvements concerned with the propeller loading distribution, including that associated with the fact that the rudder is immersed in the race of the propeller.
ref: 1980, Pauline H. Gurewitz, Hydraulic Research in the United States and Canada, 1978, page 120:
text: This is an area of spectacular tidal races, rips, swirls, boils, whirlpools, overfalls, currents, and countercurrents. Scylla and Charybdis pale by comparison with the great maelstroms where the sea is trapped between Vancouver Island and the Canadian mainland.
ref: 2003 December, Jonathan Raban, “Julia and the Whirlpools”, in Cruising World, volume 29, number 12, page 40:
synonyms: rip
glosses: A fast-moving current of water.
examples: text: Evidently the future manufacturing development depends upon the hydraulic canal, so far as existing works are concerned, rather than upon the two races, which can never be enlarged to embrace a comprehensive improvement of the river, while the capabilities at the hydraulic basin are unrivaled. So far as can be learned there is no expectation of ever increasing materially the capacity of the races.
ref: 1885, James Leal Greenleaf, “Report on the Water-Powers of the Drainage Basins of Lakes Huron and Erie, in the United States”, in Reports on the Water-Power of the United States, Washington: Department of the Interior, part 1, pages 504–505:
text: Any miners intending to divert and use water for mining or general purposes, or to cut a race or construct dams or reservoirs in connection therewith, shall give notice in writing thereof to the Warden […]
ref: 1888, “Water Rights”, in Gold Mining Regulations, 1888, Parliament of South Australia, section 48, page 4:
text: Water for irrigation is stored in the high country behind the Upper Manorburn Dam. Two parallel races at different levels run along the west side of the valley and one race flowing along the east side is supplemented by water stored at the Poolburn Dam.
ref: 1957 December 16, A. H. Mouat, R. C. Stuart, G. Mason, “Farming in Ida Valley, Central Otago”, in The New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, volume 95, number 6, page 587:
hyponyms: headrace
mill race
wheel-race
tailrace
glosses: A water channel, especially one built to lead water to or from a point where it is utilised, such as that which powers a millwheel.
examples: text: My race of glory run, and race of ſhame,
ref: 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 40, line 598:
text: There were all the marked passages, which had thrilled his soul so often,—words of patriarchs and seers, poets and sages, who from early time had spoken courage to man,—voices from the great cloud of witnesses who ever surround us in the race of life.
ref: 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, volume 2, Boston: John P. Jewett & Company, page 242:
text: Don't let fear be a factor for you as the finish line of harvest calls out to you to join the race of eternity. Clear the table of excuses and go!
ref: 2008, Chad Taylor, The Cry of the Harvest, page 115:
synonyms: career
course
progress
glosses: A path that something or someone moves along.
examples: text: I have lately seen a shuttle machine of Messrs. Grover Baker's construction, in which the shuttle worked in a semi-circular race and produced two stitches at each revolution of the wheel.
ref: 1860, Charles Cole, The Sewing Machine, and its Capabilities, page 53:
text: Meanwhile another lug on the shuttle-band engages another carrier at the other end of the loom, and the belt, continuing to move in the same direction, conveys the carrier across the race in a similar manner as above described.
ref: 1872 November 29, “Improved Loom for Weaving Fabrics of Any Width”, in The English Mechanic and Word of Science, volume 16, number 401, page 259:
topics: business
manufacturing
sewing
textiles
weaving
glosses: A guide or channel that a component of a machine moves along:
A groove on a sewing machine or a loom along which the shuttle moves.
synonyms: shuttle race
examples: text: These bearings do not employ a loading groove or filling slot but utilize an uninterrupted race groove containing the maximum number of balls that can be introduced by eccentric displacement of the races. Due to the relatively large size of the balls and the fact that the ball curvature is only slightly less than the race curvature, the bearings have comparatively high load carrying capacity in both axial and radial directions.
ref: 1965 August 15, Maintenance of Aeronautical Antifriction Bearings, NAVWEPS 01-1A-503, United States Bureau of Naval Weapons, section 2, page 5:
text: The chances of picking up an inner race fault are small unless the load direction of the bearing coincides with the location of the accelerometer.
ref: 1999, Steve Goldman, Vibration Spectrum Analysis, 2nd edition, New York: Industrial Press, →ISBN, page 90:
text: The bearing comprises four mechanical components: an outer race, an inner race, rollers (balls), and a cage that holds the rollers (balls) in place.
ref: 2017, Tian Ran Lin, Kun Yu, Jiwen Tan, “Condition Monitoring and Fault Diagnosis of Roller Element Bearing”, in Pranav H. Darji, editor, Bearing Technology, Rijeka, Croatia: InTech, →DOI, →ISBN, page 40:
topics: engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A guide or channel that a component of a machine moves along:
A ring with a groove in which rolling elements (such as balls) ride, forming part of a rolling-element bearing (for example, a ball bearing).
examples: text: Your odds are sometimes significantly better with video keno […] But because video keno plays so much faster, you're likely to lose more money over a given period. Live keno races start every 10 minutes, but you can make 100 bets on a video version in the same amount of time.
ref: 2022, Kevin Blackwood, Swain Scheps, “Striking the Mother Lode: Keno and Bingo”, in Casino Gambling For Dummies, 2nd edition, John Wiley & Sons:
topics: gambling
games
glosses: A keno gambling session.
Hyponyms: sense: racing contests
word: banger race
sense: racing contests
word: barrel race
sense: racing contests
word: beanbag race
sense: racing contests
word: boat race
sense: racing contests
word: bracket race
sense: racing contests
word: bumps race
sense: racing contests
word: circuit race
sense: racing contests
word: claiming race
sense: racing contests
word: conditions race
sense: racing contests
word: Dongola race
sense: racing contests
word: drag race
sense: racing contests
word: duck race
sense: racing contests
word: egg and spoon race
sense: racing contests
word: flat race
sense: racing contests
word: fleet race
sense: racing contests
word: foot race
sense: racing contests
word: harness race
sense: racing contests
word: horse-race
sense: racing contests
word: horse race
sense: racing contests
word: match race
sense: racing contests
word: motor race
sense: racing contests
word: obstacle race
sense: racing contests
word: one-horse race
sense: racing contests
word: points race
sense: racing contests
word: potato race
sense: racing contests
word: produce race
sense: racing contests
word: race of truth
sense: racing contests
word: rag race
sense: racing contests
word: relay race
sense: racing contests
word: road-race
sense: racing contests
word: road race
sense: racing contests
word: sack race
sense: racing contests
word: stage race
sense: racing contests
word: street race
sense: racing contests
word: three-legged race
sense: racing contests
word: wheelbarrow race
sense: racing contests
word: wok race
Derived terms: arms race
caucus race
data race
dog in the race
elephant race
have a dog in the race
headrace
head-race
head race
loudness race
mill-race
nearly never won the race
no horse in that race
no horse in this race
off to the races
one's race is run
pawn race
race against the clock
race against time
racecar
race car
race cloth
race condition
race cycling
raceday
race day
race game
race glass
racegoer
race hazard
race knife
racemate
race meeting
race out of the traps
race queen
race rotation
race to the bottom
race to the top
racetrack
race track
race walk
race-walk
race walker
race walking
racing car
rat-race
rat race
scratch race
slow and steady wins the race
slow but sure wins the race
space race
the race that stops a nation
tiderace
water race
wheel-race