Word: pair Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From Middle English paire, from Old French paire, from Latin paria (“equals”), neuter plural of par (“pair”). Related to pār (“equal”, adjective). Compare Saterland Frisian Poor (“pair”), West Frisian pear (“pair”), Dutch paar (“pair”), German Paar (“pair”), Italian paio (“pair”) Pronunciation: /pɛə/, /pɛɹ/, /peː/, /ˈpeə/, /ˈpiə/ 1. Two alike or identical things taken together; often followed by of. Example: Ting, ting, ting! went the bell again. Every body sat down; the curtain shook, rose sufficiently high to display several pair of yellow boots paddling about, and there it remained. Example: Day after day, with the stamp and shuffle of sixty pair of bare feet behind me, each pair under a 60-lb. load. 2. Two alike or identical things taken together; often followed by of. Example: [S]he had finished the second sock, and pulled its pair out of the bag before handing them to her husband. Example: Must be good at athletics, home repairs, making mince interesting and finding the pair to the other glove. 3. Two people in a relationship, partnership or friendship. Example: Spouses should make a great pair. 4. Used with binary nouns (often in the plural to indicate multiple instances, since such nouns are plural only, except in some technical contexts). Example: a pair of scissors; two pairs of spectacles; several pairs of jeans 5. A couple of working animals attached to work together, as by a yoke. Example: A pair is harder to drive than two mounts with separate riders. 6. A poker hand that contains two cards of identical rank, which cannot also count as a better hand. 7. A score of zero runs (a duck) in both innings of a two-innings match. 8. A double play, two outs recorded in one play. Labels: informal Example: They turned a pair to end the fifth. 9. A doubleheader, two games played on the same day between the same teams. Labels: informal Example: The Pirates took a pair from the Phillies. 10. A boat for two sweep rowers. 11. A pair of breasts. Labels: slang Example: She's got a gorgeous pair. 12. A pair of testicles. Labels: slang Example: Grow a pair, mate. 13. The exclusion of one member of a parliamentary party from a vote, if a member of the other party is absent for important personal reasons. Labels: Australia 14. Two members of opposite parties or opinion, as in a parliamentary body, who mutually agree not to vote on a given question, or on issues of a party nature during a specified time. Example: There were two pairs on the final vote. Example: One-line business is optional; three-line business compulsory; when it's two lines you have to be on parade unless you have secured a 'pair' and cleared it with the 'pairing whip'. 15. A number of things resembling one another, or belonging together; a set. Labels: archaic Example: Thou lieſt; I ha’ nothing buy my ſkin, / And my cloaths; my ſword here, and my ſelf; / Two Crowns in my pocket; two pair of Cards; / And three falſe Dice: I can ſwim like a fiſh / Raſcal, nothing to hinder me. Example: It would never do, you know, for me to be plunging myself into poverty and shabbiness and love in one room up three pair of stairs, and all that sort of thing. 16. In a mechanism, two elements, or bodies, which are so applied to each other as to mutually constrain relative motion; named in accordance with the motion it permits, as in turning pair, sliding pair, twisting pair.