Word: race Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁s-der. Proto-Germanic *rēsōder. Proto-West Germanic *rās Old English rǣs ▲ Proto-Germanic *rēsō Old Norse rásbor. Middle English race English race 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. Pronunciation: /ɹeɪs/ 1. A contest between people, animals, vehicles, etc. where the goal is to be the first to reach some objective. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Several horses ran in a horse race: the first one to reach the finishing post won. Example: The race to cure cancer 2. Swift progress; rapid motion; an instance of moving or driving at high speed. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The flight of many birds is swifter than the race of any beasts. Example: Hence the rapid race / Of light, and lustre from th' effusive sun 3. A race condition; a bug or problem that occurs when two or more components attempt to use the same resource at the same time. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Many problems of oscillations and races are solved by this arrangement. Example: 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. 4. A sequence of events; a progressive movement toward a goal. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: A race of wicked acts / Shall flow out of my anger, and o’erspread / The world’s wide face[.] Example: 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? 5. A fast-moving current of water. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Here are in these seas two dangerous races, the one called St. Alban's, the other Portland Race. Example: 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. 6. 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. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: 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. Example: 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 […] 7. A path that something or someone moves along. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: My race of glory run, and race of ſhame, Example: 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. 8. A guide or channel that a component of a machine moves along: Labels: countable, uncountable Example: 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. Example: 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. 9. A guide or channel that a component of a machine moves along: Labels: countable, uncountable Example: inner/outer race Example: 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. 10. A keno gambling session. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: 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.