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lace - What does it mean?

Definition of 'lace'

English

Noun

  • (uncountable) A light fabric containing patterns of holes, usually built up from a single thread.(w)
  • * (Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)
    • Our English dames are much given to the wearing of costly laces .
  • * |title=The Mirror and the Lamp
    • |chapter=2 citation |passage=She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace , […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.}}
  • *
    • Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […]  Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace , complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but they had little capes or coats or feather boas.
  • (countable) A cord or ribbon passed through eyelets in a shoe or garment, pulled tight and tied to fasten the shoe or garment firmly.(w)
  • A snare or gin, especially one made of interwoven cords; a net.
  • * (Geoffrey Chaucer) (c.1343-1400)
    • Vulcanus had caught thee [Venus] in his lace .
    (Fairfax)
  • (slang|obsolete) Spirits added to coffee or another beverage.
    • (Addison)

    Synonyms

    * (cord) ** (for a shoe) shoelace ** (for a garment) tie

    Verb

    (lac)
  • (label) To fasten (something) with laces.
  • * (Matthew Prior) (1664-1721)
    • When Jenny's stays are newly laced .
  • (label) To add alcohol, poison, a drug or anything else potentially harmful to (food or drink).
  • (label) To interweave items. (lacing one's fingers together)
  • *
    • |title=(The Celebrity)|chapter=8 |passage=Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams, the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet: or anon we shot into a clearing, with a colored glimpse of the lake and its curving shore far below us.}}
  • (label) To interweave the spokes of a bicycle wheel.
  • To beat; to lash; to make stripes on.
  • * (w, Roger L'Estrange) (1616-1704)
    • I'll lace your coat for ye.
  • To adorn with narrow strips or braids of some decorative material.
    • (Shakespeare)

    Derived terms

    * enlace * lace into (rel-mid) * lace-up shoes / lace-ups * lacy (rel-bottom)

    Anagrams

    * ----

    Similar to 'lace'

    lose, loose, leche, lake, louse, lice, luce, like, lase, loge, luge, luxe, lease, liege, lege, luke, lyse, lese, liase, laze, lige, likee, lisse, lesse, lacke, looke, leese, lyke, loike, loke, lyase, lyege, lexie, loche, locke, liage, leaze