lace

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /leɪs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪs

From Middle English lace, laace, las, from Old French las, from Vulgar Latin *laceum, based on Latin laqueus. Doublet of lasso.

lace (countable and uncountable, plural laces)

1. (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. 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, 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.

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. ^Wp

   your laces are untied, do them up!

3. A snare or gin, especially one made of interwoven cords; a net.
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Knyghtes Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], OCLC 230972125; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, OCLC 932884868:

     Vulcanus had caught thee [Venus] in his las.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

   • 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[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, OCLC 940138160, stanza 20, page 23:

     The king had ſnared been in loues ſtrong lace, [...]

4. (slang, obsolete) Spirits added to coffee or another beverage.
   • 2023 March 8 (Gregorian calendar)​, Joseph Addison, “WEDNESDAY, February 25, 2022–2023”, in The Spectator, number (please specify the issue number); republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume (please either specify the issue number or |volume=I to VI), New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, OCLC 191120697:

     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.

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

From Middle English lacen, lasen, from Old French lacer, lacier, lasser, lachier, from the noun (see above).

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

1. (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 5634253:

     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.
   • 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 222716698:

     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.

   • 1895 November, Rudyard Kipling, The Second Jungle Book, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., OCLC 929793067:

     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. (transitive) To beat; to lash; to make stripes on.
   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], OCLC 228727523:

     I'll Lace your Coat for ye.

6. (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[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene ii]:

     Under these windows, white and azure-laced

• ALEC, Acle, Alec, Cela, acle, alec, cale

lace

1. wearily

• laca

lace

1. inflection of lacer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• cale, calé
• cela

lace

1. second-person singular present active imperative of laciō

• IPA^(key): /ˈla.t͡sɛ/
• Rhymes: -at͡sɛ
• Syllabification: la‧ce

lace f

1. dative/locative singular of laka

lace

1. inflection of laçar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

lace m or f or n (masculine plural laci, feminine and neuter plural lace)

1. Obsolete form of laș.

• lace in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

lace

1. inflection of lazar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative