Definition of race

• v. t. - To raze.
• n. - A root.
• n. - The descendants of a common ancestor; a family, tribe, people, or nation, believed or presumed to belong to the same stock; a lineage; a breed.
• n. - Company; herd; breed.
• n. - A variety of such fixed character that it may be propagated by seed.
• n. - Peculiar flavor, taste, or strength, as of wine; that quality, or assemblage of qualities, which indicates origin or kind, as in wine; hence, characteristic flavor; smack.
• n. - Hence, characteristic quality or disposition.
• n. - A progress; a course; a movement or progression.
• n. - Esp., swift progress; rapid course; a running.
• n. - Hence: The act or process of running in competition; a contest of speed in any way, as in running, riding, driving, skating, rowing, sailing; in the plural, usually, a meeting for contests in the running of horses; as, he attended the races.
• n. - Competitive action of any kind, especially when prolonged; hence, career; course of life.
• n. - 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 meeting of two tides; as, the Portland Race; the Race of Alderney.
• n. - The current of water that turns a water wheel, or the channel in which it flows; a mill race.
• n. - A channel or guide along which a shuttle is driven back and forth, as in a loom, sewing machine, etc.
• v. i. - To run swiftly; to contend in a race; as, the animals raced over the ground; the ships raced from port to port.
• v. i. - To run too fast at times, as a marine engine or screw, when the screw is lifted out of water by the action of a heavy sea.
• v. t. - To cause to contend in a race; to drive at high speed; as, to race horses.
• v. t. - To run a race with.