pair
Listen:Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
pair/peə(r)/
▶noun
- 1 a set of two things used together or regarded as a unit.
- 2 an article consisting of two joined or corresponding parts.
- 3 two people or animals related in some way or considered together.
■ two members of a legislative assembly on opposing sides who absent themselves from voting by mutual arrangement, in order to maintain the relative position of the parties.
■ (pair off/up) form a couple.
– derivatives
paired adjective,
pairing noun,
pairwise adjective & adverb.
paired adjective,
pairing noun,
pairwise adjective & adverb.
– origin ME: from OFr. paire, from L. paria ‘equal things’, neut. pl. of par ‘equal’.
'pair' also found in these Oxford entries:
abducens nerves
- accessory nerves
- adjacent
- adrenal
- alguacil
- anchor
- ancon
- andiron
- angle bracket
- antennule
- arouse
- ascent
- asymmetric bars
- au pair
- back-fanged
- Bartholin's gland
- base pair
- bedsock
- bib
- bifocal
- bilge keel
- binary
- bivalent
- blinker
- bongo
- book lung
- bow
- bp
- brace
- bracket
- breeches buoy
- buffer
- butterfly valve
- camiknickers
- carriage and pair
- cassette
- centipede
- centre
- centriole
- cercus
- cheater
- chelicera
- chevron
- chopstick
- claspers
- claves
- claw
- codpiece
- collarbone
- companion
