Definition of "lace"

lace¹

/leɪs/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural laces
1. (uncountable) A light fabric containing patterns of holes, usually built up from a single thread.
  Quotations
  Our English dames are much given to the wearing of very fine and costly laces.
  c. 1620, Francis Bacon, letter of advice to Sir George Villiers
  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.
  1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 2, in The Mirror and the Lamp‎
  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.
  1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins
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.
3. A snare or gin, especially one made of interwoven cords; a net.
  Quotations
  The king had ſnared been in loues ſtrong lace, [...]
  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, stanza 20, page 23
4. (slang, obsolete) Spirits added to coffee or another beverage.
  Quotations
  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.
  2023 December 24 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “SUNDAY, December 13, 2023”, in The Spectator, number (please specify the issue number); republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volumes (please either specify the issue number or |volume=I to VI), New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853

lace²

/leɪs/

verb
third-person singular simple present laces, present participle lacing, simple past and past participle laced
1. (ergative) To fasten (something) with laces.
  Quotations
  When Jenny's stays are newly laced.
  1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Alma: Or, The Progress of the Mind”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […]
2. (transitive) To interweave items.
  Quotations
  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.
  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.
  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.
  1895 November, Rudyard Kipling, The Second Jungle Book, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co.
  Flanner's old-fashioned, staunch feminism runs throughout and laces together these letters.
  1986 April 12, Robin Lippincott, “Passionate Friendship, Old-fashioned Feminism”, in Gay Community News, page 14
3. (transitive) To interweave the spokes of a bicycle wheel.
4. (transitive) To beat; to lash; to make stripes on.
  Quotations
  I'll Lace your Coat for ye.
  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, […]
5. (transitive) To adorn with narrow strips or braids of some decorative material.
  Quotations
  Under these windows, white and azure-laced
  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, [Act II, scene ii]
6. (transitive, figuratively) To intersperse or diversify with something.
  Quotations
  The throne speech opening the New Democrat government’s second legislative session Dec. 2 was a modest document featuring caution and pragmatism laced with a few tidbits of democratic socialism.
  1982 December 11, Frances Russell, “Economic performance buoys Pawley’s position”, in The Vancouver Sun (The Weekend Sun), Vancouver, BC, page A6
7. (transitive) To add alcohol, poison, a drug or anything else potentially harmful to (food or drink).

Definition of "lace"

lace1

noun

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lace2

verb

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lace¹

lace²