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English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English lace, laace, las, from Old French las, from Vulgar Latin *laceum, based on Latin laqueus. Doublet of lasso.
Noun
lace (countable and uncountable, plural laces)
- (uncountable) A light fabric containing patterns of holes, usually built up from a single thread. Wp
- c. 1620, Francis Bacon, letter of advice to Sir George Villiers
- Our English dames are much given to the wearing of very fine and costly laces.
1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC: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.
1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN: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. Wp
your laces are untied, do them up!
- A snare or gin, especially one made of interwoven cords; a net.
1600, [Torquato Tasso], “The Second Booke of Godfrey of Bulloigne”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. , London: Ar Hatfield, for I Iaggard and M Lownes, →OCLC, stanza 20, page 23:The king had ſnared been in loues ſtrong lace, [...]
- (slang, obsolete) Spirits added to coffee or another beverage.
2024 May 9 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “THURSDAY, April 28, 2024”, in The Spectator, number (please specify the issue number); republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, , volumes (please either specify the issue number or |volume=I to VI), New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:He is forced every Morning to drink his Dish of Coffee by itself, without the Addition of the Spectator, that used to be better than Lace to it.
Synonyms
Translations
cord for fastening a shoe
— see shoelace
Etymology 2
From Middle English lacen, lasen, from Old French lacer, lacier, lasser, lachier, from the noun (see above).
Verb
lace (third-person singular simple present laces, present participle lacing, simple past and past participle laced)
- (ergative) To fasten (something) with laces.
1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Alma: Or, The Progress of the Mind”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: Jacob Tonson , and John Barber , →OCLC:When Jenny's stays are newly laced.
- (transitive) To interweave items.
to lace one's fingers together
1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC: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.
1986 April 12, Robin Lippincott, “Passionate Friendship, Old-fashioned Feminism”, in Gay Community News, page 14:Flanner's old-fashioned, staunch feminism runs throughout and laces together these letters.
- (transitive) To interweave the spokes of a bicycle wheel.
- (transitive) To beat; to lash; to make stripes on.
- (transitive) To adorn with narrow strips or braids of some decorative material.
cloth laced with silver
1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :Under these windows, white and azure-laced
- (transitive, figuratively) To intersperse or diversify with something.
1982 December 11, Frances Russell, “Economic performance buoys Pawley’s position”, in The Vancouver Sun (The Weekend Sun), Vancouver, BC, page A6:The throne speech opening the New Democrat government’s second legislative session Dec. 2 was a modest document featuring caution and pragmatism laced with a few tidbits of democratic socialism.
- (transitive) To add alcohol, poison, a drug or anything else potentially harmful to (food or drink).
Derived terms
Translations
fasten with laces
- Arabic: شَدَّ (ar) (šadda), دَمَجَ (damaja), رَبَطَ (rabaṭa)
- Bulgarian: връзвам (bg) (vrǎzvam)
- Czech: zavázat pf, zašněrovat pf
- Danish: snørre c
- Esperanto: laĉi
- Gallurese: accappià, lià, allaccià
- German: schnüren (de), binden (de), zusammenbinden (de), flechten (de), verflechten (de), verlitzen, abbinden (de), bündeln (de), einsäumen (de), klöppeln (de)
- Italian: allacciare (it), legare (it)
- Maori: kōtui, kaui
- Norman: lachi
- Norwegian: snøre
- Polish: sznurować (pl)
- Portuguese: enlaçar (pt), laçar (pt)
- Russian: прониза́ть (ru) pf (pronizátʹ), прокры́ть (ru) pf (prokrýtʹ), связа́ть (ru) pf (svjazátʹ)
- Sardinian:
- Campidanese: accappiai
- Logudorese: illaqueare
- Sassarese: accappià, lià
- Swedish: snöra (sv)
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add something harmful to
- Arabic: لَوَّثَ (lawwaṯa)
- Czech: otrávit (cs) pf
- German: zugeben (de), versetzen (de), verunreinigen (de), kontaminieren (de), dotieren (de), infizieren (de), vergiften (de)
- Italian: combinare (it), abbinare (it), alterare (it), avvelenare (it), contaminare (it), manomettere, appestare (it), degradare (it)
- Portuguese: envenenar (pt)
- Russian: подмеша́ть (ru) pf (podmešátʹ), смеша́ть (ru) pf (smešátʹ), напои́ть (ru) pf (napoítʹ), запра́вить (ru) pf (zaprávitʹ), напо́лнить (ru) pf (napólnitʹ), пропита́ть (ru) pf (propitátʹ)
- Spanish: envenenar (es)
- Swedish: spetsa (sv)
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Anagrams
Esperanto
Adverb
lace
- wearily
Related terms
French
Verb
lace
- inflection of lacer:
- first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- second-person singular imperative
Anagrams
Galician
Verb
lace
- inflection of lazar:
- first/third-person singular present subjunctive
- third-person singular imperative
Latin
Verb
lace
- second-person singular present active imperative of laciō
Polish
Pronunciation
Noun
lace f
- dative/locative singular of laka
Portuguese
Etymology 1
Unadapted borrowing from English lace (wig).
Pronunciation
Noun
lace f (plural laces)
- (Brazil) lace wig
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -asi
- Hyphenation: la‧ce
Verb
lace
- inflection of laçar:
- first/third-person singular present subjunctive
- third-person singular imperative
Romanian
Adjective
lace m or f or n (masculine plural laci, feminine and neuter plural lace)
- Obsolete form of laș.
Declension
References
- lace in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN
Spanish
Verb
lace
- inflection of lazar:
- first/third-person singular present subjunctive
- third-person singular imperative