Pair

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language

·noun A married couple; a man and wife.

II. Pair ·vt To Impair.

III. Pair ·vi ·same·as To pair off. ·see phrase below.

IV. Pair ·vi To Suit; to fit, as a counterpart.

V. Pair ·vi To be joined in paris; to Couple; to mate, as for breeding.

VI. Pair ·noun Two of a sort; a span; a yoke; a couple; a brace; as, a pair of horses; a pair of oxen.

VII. Pair ·noun In a mechanism, two elements, or bodies, which are so applied to each other as to mutually constrain relative motion.

VIII. Pair ·vt To engage (one's self) with another of opposite opinions not to vote on a particular question or class of questions.

IX. Pair ·noun A single thing, composed of two pieces fitted to each other and used together; as, a pair of scissors; a pair of tongs; a pair of bellows.

X. Pair ·vt To unite in couples; to form a pair of; to bring together, as things which belong together, or which complement, or are adapted to one another.

XI. Pair ·noun Two things of a kind, similar in form, suited to each other, and intended to be used together; as, a pair of gloves or stockings; a pair of shoes.

XII. Pair ·noun Two members of opposite parties or opinion, as in a parliamentary body, who mutually agree not to vote on a given question, or on issues of a party nature during a specified time; as, there were two pairs on the final vote.

XIII. Pair ·noun A number of things resembling one another, or belonging together; a set; as, a pair or flight of stairs. "A pair of beads." Chaucer. Beau. & Fl. "Four pair of stairs." Macaulay. [Now mostly or quite disused, except as to stairs.].

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