raccourcy 
coiircir, shorten, < n- + court, short: see curt.'] 
In Jier., same as coupeil. 
race 1 (ras), . [Early mod. E. also rase; < ME. 
n/xc, ras, commonly rees, res, a rush, running, 
swift course^ swift current, a trial of speed, 
etc., < AS. r&is, a rush, swift course, onset (cf. 
gar-ries, 'spear-rush,' fight with spears), = Icel. 
ras, a race, running, course, channel: see raeel, 
v., and cf. race 2 . The AS. form rs, ME. rees, 
rex, would produce a mod. E. *reese ; the form 
in iioun and verb, race, prop, rase, is due to the 
Scand. cognates, and perhaps also in part, in 
the verb, to confusion with race 5 , .] 1. A 
rush; running; swift course. 
Whenne thei were war of Moiscs, 
Thei fleyge away al in a res. 
Cursor Mundi. (Ualliieell.) 
That I fill ofte, in suche a res, 
Am werye of myn owen lyf. 
Gower, Conf. Amant. 
The flight of many birds is swifter than the race of any 
beasts. Bacon, Nat. Hi8t, $ 681. 
2. A course which has to be run, passed over, 
or gone through; onward movement or pro- 
gression; career. 
How soon hath thy prediction, Seer blest, 
Measured this transient world, the race of time, 
Till time stand flx'd ! Milton, P. L., xii. 554. 
Eternity ! that boundless Race 
Which Time himself can never run. 
Congreve, Imlt. of Horace, II. xiv. 1. 
Succeeding Years their happy Race shall run, 
And Age unheeded by Delight come on. 
Prior, Henry and Emma. 
My Arthur, whom I shall not gee 
Till all my widow'd race be run. 
Tennyson, In Meuioriam, ix. 
3. A contest of speed; a competitive trial of 
speed, especially in running, but also in riding, 
driving, sailing, rowing, walking, or any mode 
of progression. The plural, used absolutely, commonly 
means a series of horse-races run at a set time over a reg- 
ular course : as, to go to the races ; the Epsom races. 
To the bischope in a ras he ran. 
Old Eng. Metr. Homilies, 1. 141. 
Part on the plain, or in the air sublime. 
Upon the wing or in swift race contend, 
As at the Olympian games. Milton, P. L., ii. 529. 
The races were then called bell courses, because . . .the 
prize was a silver bell. Stnitt, Sports and Pastimes, p. 107. 
4f. Course, as of events ; progress. 
The prosecution and race of the war carrieth the defen- 
dant to assail and invade the ancient and indubitate pat- 
rimony of the first aggressor. Bacon, War with Spain. 
5f. Struggle ; conflict ; tumult ; trouble. 
Othes hue him sworen in stude ther he wes, 
To buen him hold ant trewe for alles cunnes res. 
Execution of Sir Simon Fraser (Child's Ballads, VI. 276). 
Hem rued the res that thei ne rest had. 
Alisaunder of Macedoine (E. E. T. S.\ 1. 889. 
Kedeliche in that ret the recuuerere that me falles, 
As whan i haue ani hap to here of that barne. 
William of Palerne (E. E. T. S X 1. 439. 
6f. Course; line of onward movement; way; 
route. 
The souldier victourer is not woonte to spare any that 
commethe in his rase. 
R. Eden, tr. of Peter Martyr (First Books on America, 
[ed. Arber, p. 122). 
Consolation race. See consolation. Flat race, ahorse- 
race over level or clear ground, as opposed to a hurdle-race 
or steeplechase. Obstacle-race. See obstacle. 
race 1 (ras), v. ; pret. and pp. raced, ppr. racing. 
[< ME. raseu, resen, rush, run, hasten, < AS. rse- 
san, rush, move violently, also rush on, attack, 
rush into ; = OD. rdsen, rage, = MLG. rasen, 
MHG. G. rasen, rage, = Icel. rasa = Sw. rasa = 
Dan. rase, race, rush, hurry: see race 1 , n., 1. 
The form race, prop, rose, is due to the Scand. 
cognates: see the noun.] I. intrans. 1. To run 
swiftly; run in, or as if engaged in, a contest 
of speed. 
Saladin began to rase for ire. 
Richard Coer de Lion, 1. 3633. 
The racing place, call'd the Hippodromus, without the 
gate of Canopus, was probably in the plain towards the 
canal. Pococke, Description of the East, I. 10. 
But I began 
To thrid the musky -circled mazes, wind 
And double in and out the boles, and race 
By all the fountains : fleet I was of foot. 
Tennyson, Princess, iv. 
2. To run with uncontrolled speed ; go or re- 
volve wildly or with improper acceleration: 
said of a steam-engine, a wheel, a ship's screw, 
or the like, when resistance is diminisued with- 
out corresponding diminution of power. 
No centrifugal governor could have so instantaneously 
cut off the steam : it would not have acted till the engine 
began to race. 
S. P. Thompson, Dynamo-Elect. Mach., p. 98. 
A big steamer in a heavy seaway often rests upon two 
waves, one under her bows and the other under her stern, 
4926 
while the 'midship section has practically no support from 
the water ; and, again, her bows will be almost out of wa- 
ter and her screw racing. Set. Amer., N. S., LVII. 144. 
3. To practise horse-racing as an occupation ; 
be engaged in the business of running horses. 
II. trans. 1. To cause to run or move swift- 
ly; push or drive onward in, or as if in, a trial of 
speed : as, to race a horse ; to race steamers. 
2. To run, or cause horses, etc., to run, in com- 
petition with; contend against in a race. 
Swore, boxed, fought cocks, and raced their neighbor's 
horses. Irving, Knickerbocker, p. 176. 
[Colloquial in both uses.] 
race 2 (ras), w. [A particular use of race*, as ' a 
swiftly running stream'; but perhaps in part 
due to OF. rase, raise, a ditch, channel, = Pr. 
ram, a channel ; origin uncertain.] A strong 
or rapid current of water, or the channel or 
passage for such a current ; a powerful current 
or heavy sea sometimes produced by the meet- 
ing of two tides : as, the Race of Alderney ; 
Portland Race. 
This evening the Talbot weighed and went back to the 
Cowes, because her anchor would not hold here, the tide 
set with so strong a race. 
Winthrop, Hist. New England, I. 4. 
Near the sides of channels and near the mouths of bays 
the changes of the current* are very complex ; and near 
the headlands separating two bays there is usually at cer- 
tain times a very swift current, termed a race. 
Encyc. Brit., XXIII. 353. 
(a) A canal or watercourse from a dam to a water-wheel : 
specifically called the head-race. (6) The watercourse 
which leads away the water after it leaves the wheel : 
specifically called the tail-race. 
race 3 (ras), n. and a. [< F. race (> G. >>. 
race = Sw. ras = Dan. race, breed of horses, 
etc.), dial, mice = Pr. Sp. raza = Pg. < = 
It. razsa, race, breed, lineage, < OHG. rci:, 
reiza, MHG. reiz (G. riss), line, scratch, stroke, 
mark, = Icel. reitr, scratch, < rita, scratch, = AS. 
M>rfa = E. write: see write. No connection with 
race*, root, < L. radix, though race 3 may have 
been influenced by this word in some of its 
uses: see race*.] I. n. 1. A genealogical line or 
stock ; a class of persons allied by descent from 
a common ancestry ; lineage; family; kindred: 
as, the Levites were a race of priests; to be of 
royal or of ignoble race. 
She is a gentlewoman of very absolute behaviour, and 
of a good race. B. Jonson, Epicrene, III. 2. 
He lives to build, not boast, a generous race; 
No tenth transmitter of a foolish face. 
Savage, The Bastard. 
2. An ethnical stock ; a great division of man- 
kind having in common certain distinguishing 
physical peculiarities, and thus a comprehen- 
sive class appearing to be derived from a dis- 
tinct primitive source: as, the Caucasian race; 
the Mongolian race; the Negro race. See man, 1. 
I cannot with any accuracy speak of the English race; 
that would he claiming for ourselves too great a place 
among the nations of the earth. 
E. A. Freeman, Amer. Lects., p. 14. 
3. A tribal or national stock ; a division or sub- 
division of one of the great racial stocks of 
mankind, distinguished by minor peculiarities: 
as, the Celtic race; the Finnic race is a branch 
of the Mongolian; the English, French, and 
Spaniards are mixed races. 4. The human 
family; human beings as a class; mankind: 
a shortened form of human race: as, the fu- 
ture prospects of the race; the elevation of 
the race. 
She had no companions of mortal race. 
Shelley, Sensitive Plant, ii. 4. 
5. A breed, stock, or strain of domesticated 
animals or cultivated plants; an artificially 
propagated and perpetuated variety, such races 
differ from natural species or varieties in their tendency 
to revert to their original characters, and lose those artifi- 
cially acquired, when they are left to themselves. Many 
thousands of races have been produced and named. 
There is a race of sheep in this country with four horns, 
two of them turning upwards, and two downwards. 
Pococke, Description of the East, II. i. 19B. 
The truth of the principle of prepotency comes out more 
clearly when distinct races are crossed. 
Darn-in, Var. of Animals and Plants, xiv. 
Specifically (a) In zool.. a geographical variety ; a sub- 
species, characteristic of a given faunal area, intergrading 
with another form of the same species. (6) In bot. : (1) A 
variety so fixed as to reproduce itself with considerable 
certainty by seed. Races may be of spontaneous origin 
or the result of artificial selection. (2) In a broader use. 
any variety, subspecies, species, or group of very similar 
species whose characters are continued through succes- 
sive generations. Bentham, Address to Linn. Soc., 1869. 
6. Any fixed class of beings more or less broadly 
differentiated from all others ; any general ag- 
gregate of mankind or of animals considered as 
a class apart; a perpetuated or continuing line 
racemation 
of like exist eiiecs: as. the human rui-c : the race 
nf st.-itesnicii : Ih juino or the feline roa . 
That provident care for the welfare of the offspring 
which is so strongly evinced by many of the insect /"> . 
Soy. 
7|. A line or series ; a course or succession : 
used of things. 
A race of wicked acts 
shall flow out of my anger, and o'erspread 
The world's wide face. B. Jonson, Sejanus, ii. 2. 
8f. A strong peculiarity by which the origin 
or species of anything may be recognized, as, 
especially, the flavor of wine. 
Order. There came not six days since from Hull a pipe 
of rich canary. . . . 
Greedy. Is it of the right race? 
Massinger, New Way to Pay Old Debts, i. 3. 
9f. Intrinsic character; natural quality or dis- 
position; hence, spirit; vigor; pith; raciness. 
Now I give my sensual race the rein. 
Shak., M. for M., ii. 4. 160. 
I think the Epistles of Phalaris to have more race, more 
spirit, more force of wit and genius than any others I have 
overseen. Sir W. Temple, Anc. and Mod. Learning. 
=Syn. Tribe, Clan, etc. See people. 
II. <i. Of or pertaining to a race. [Rare.] 
The pyramids are race monuments. 
Xew Princeton Rev., V. 2S5. 
race ' (ras), . [Formerly also raze; < OF. rat's, 
rai': = 8p. rai; = Pg. ruiz = It. radice, a root, 
< L. radio:, a root: see radix, radish.] A root. 
See race-ginger, and hand, 13 (a). 
I have a gammon of bacon, and two razes of ginger, to 
be delivered as far as Charing Cross. 
Shale., 1 Hen. IV., Ii. 1. 27. 
By my troth, I spent eleven pence, beside three races of 
ginger. 
Greene and Lodge, Looking Glass for Lond. and Eng. 
race f 't (ras), r. t. [< ME. raccn, rase n, by apheresis 
from araeeii, root up : see arace*, and cf. ra.v/i 3 .] 
To tear up ; snatch away hastily. 
After he be-heilde towarde the fler, and saugh the flesshe 
that the knaue hadde rosted that was tho I-nough, and 
raced it off with his hondes madly, and rente it a-sonder in 
peces. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), iii. 424. 
And raas it frame his riche mene and ryste it in sondyre. 
Morte Arthure(E. E. T. S.), 1. 362. 
race 6 t. r. t. An obsolete form of rase 1 , raze 1 . 
race 7 (ras), w. [Origin obscure.] A calcareous 
concretion in brick-earth. [Prov. Eng.] 
What were at first supposed to be pebbles In one of the 
samples from Tantah prove on examination to be calcare- 
ous concretions (race or kunkur). 
Proc. noy. Soc., XXXIX. 213. 
rac6 (ra-sa'), In her., same as indented. 
race-card (ras'kard), H. A printed card con- 
taining information about the races to be run 
at a meeting on a race-course. 
I remember it because I went to Epsom races that year 
to sell race cards. 
Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I. 481. 
race-cloth (ras'kloth), . A saddle-cloth used 
in horse-racing, haying pockets for the weights 
that may be prescribed. 
race-course (ras'kors), H. 1. A plot of ground 
laid out for horse-racing, having a track for the 
horses, usually elliptical, and accommodations 
for the participants and spectators. 2. The 
canal along which water is conveyed to or from 
a water-wheel. 
race-cup (ras'kup), w. A piece of plate forming 
a prize at a horse-race. Originally such a piece 
of plate had the form of a goblet or drinking- 
cup, whence the name. 
race-ginger (rito'iin'jAr), . Ginger in the root, 
or not pulverized. 
race-ground (ras'ground), n. Ground appro- 
priated to races. 
race-horse (ras'hdrs), n. 1. A horse bred or 
kept for racing or running in contests; a horse 
that runs in competition. The modern race-horse, 
though far inferior to the Arab in point of endurance, is 
perhaps the finest horse in the world for moderate heats, 
such as those on common race-tracks. It is generally 
longer-bodied than the hunter, and the same power of 
leaping is not required. This animal is of Arabian, Ber- 
ber, or Turkish extraction, improved and perfected by 
careful crossing and training. See racer, 2. 
2. The steamer-duck. 3. A rear- 
horse ; any mantis. 
race-knife (ras'mf ), . A tool with a 
bent-over lip for scribing, marking, 
numbering, and other purposes. E. 
II. J\'nif/ht. 
racemation (ras-e-ma'shpn),n. [<LL. 
raeematin(n-), the gleaning of grapes, Race - knlfc ' 
< L. raccmus, a cluster of grapes: see raceme.] 
1. The gathering or trimming of clusters of 
grapes. [Rare.] 
