race

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A competition of speed, as in running or riding.
• noun A series of such competitions held at a specified time on a regular course.
• noun An extended competition in which participants struggle like runners to be the winner.
• noun Steady or rapid onward movement.
• noun A strong or swift current of water.
• noun The channel of such a current.
• noun An artificial channel built to transport water and use its energy.
• noun A groovelike part of a machine in which a moving part slides or rolls.
• intransitive verb Sports To compete in a contest of speed.
• intransitive verb To move rapidly or at top speed.
• intransitive verb To run too rapidly due to decreased resistance or unnecessary provision of fuel.
• intransitive verb To compete against in a race.
• intransitive verb To cause to compete in a race.
• intransitive verb To transport rapidly or at top speed; rush.
• intransitive verb To cause (an engine with the gears disengaged, for example) to run swiftly or too swiftly.
• noun A group of people identified as distinct from other groups because of supposed physical or genetic traits shared by the group. Most biologists and anthropologists do not recognize race as a biologically valid classification, in part because there is more genetic variation within groups than between them.
• noun A group of people united or classified together on the basis of common history, nationality, or geographic distribution.
• noun A genealogical line; a lineage.
• noun Humans considered as a group.
• noun A usually geographically isolated population of organisms that differs from other populations of the same species in certain heritable traits.
• noun A breed or strain, as of domestic animals.
• noun A distinguishing or characteristic quality, such as the flavor of a wine.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To run swiftly; run in, or as if engaged in, a contest of speed.
• To run with uncontrolled speed; go or revolve wildly or with improper acceleration: said of a steam-engine, a wheel, a ship's screw, or the like, when resistance is diminished without corresponding diminution of power.
• To practise horse-racing as an occupation; be engaged in the business of running horses.
• To cause to run or move swiftly, push or drive onward in, or as if in, a trial of speed: as, to race a horse; to race steamers.
• To run, or cause horses, etc., to run, in competition with; contend against in a race.
• noun 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 Race of Alderney; Portland Race.
• noun A canal or watercourse from a dam to a water-wheel: specifically called the head-race.
• noun The watercourse which leads away the water after it leaves the wheel: specifically called the tail-race.
• An obsolete form of rase, raze.
• noun A calcareous concretion in brick-earth.
• In heraldry, same as indented.
• noun The heart, liver, and lungs or lights of an animal, especially of a calf: same as pluck, 4.
• noun A rush; running; swift course.
• noun A course which has to be run, passed over, or gone through; onward movement or progression; career.
• noun 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.
• noun Course, as of events; progress.
• noun Struggle; conflict; tumult; trouble.
• noun Course; line of onward movement; way; route.
• noun A root. See race-ginger, and hand, 13 .
• To tear up; snatch away hastily.
• noun The circnlar path traversed by a horse in driving a machine by a horse-whim; a gin-ring or gin-race.
• noun In mech., an annular ring or groove in which the rollers of a roller-bearing, or the balls of a ball-bearing, travel; a ball-race; a roller-race. For a roller-bearing, the race is usually the frustum of a very flat cone, the rollers being frusta of the complementary cone.
• noun A narrow passage, fenced with hurdles, for sheep; a lane.