English

Noun

lace ‎(countable and uncountable, plural laces)

1. (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.

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 2, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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, An Autobiography, Part II, chapter4:

     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.

2. (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
3. 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.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Fairfax to this entry?)

4. (slang, obsolete) Spirits added to coffee or another beverage.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Addison to this entry?)

Derived terms

• lacemaker

Synonyms

• (cord):
  • (for a shoe): shoelace
  • (for a garment): tie

Translations

Verb

lace ‎(third-person singular simple present laces, present participle lacing, simple past and past participle laced)

1. (transitive) To fasten (something) with laces.
   • Matthew Prior (1664-1721)

     When Jenny's stays are newly laced.

2. (transitive) To add alcohol, poison, a drug or anything else potentially harmful to (food or drink).
3. (transitive) To interweave items.
   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 8, in The Celebrity:

     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.

   • Rudyard Kipling

     The Gond […] picked up a trail of the Karela, the vine that bears the bitter wild gourd, and laced it to and fro across the temple door.

   to lace one's fingers together

4. (transitive) To interweave the spokes of a bicycle wheel.
5. To beat; to lash; to make stripes on.
   • Roger L'Estrange (1616-1704)

     I'll lace your coat for ye.

6. To adorn with narrow strips or braids of some decorative material.

   cloth laced with silver‎

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

Translations

Derived terms

Anagrams

• Alec

Esperanto

Adverb

lace

1. wearily

Related terms

• laca

French

Verb

lace

1. first-person singular present indicative of lacer
2. third-person singular present indicative of lacer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of lacer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of lacer
5. second-person singular imperative of lacer

Anagrams

• cale, calé
• cela

Latin

Verb

lace

1. second-person singular present active imperative of laciō

Portuguese

Verb

lace

1. first-person singular present subjunctive of laçar
2. third-person singular present subjunctive of laçar
3. first-person singular imperative of laçar
4. third-person singular imperative of laçar

Spanish

Verb

lace

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of lazar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of lazar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of lazar.