3. In speaking or reading aloud, a brief arrest or suspension of voice, to indicate the limits and relations of sentences and their parts.
4. In writing and printing, a mark indicating the place and nature of an arrest of voice in reading; a punctuation point; as, teach the pupil to mind the pauses.
5. A break or paragraph in writing. He writes with warmth, which usually neglects method, and those partitions and pauses which men educated in schools observe. Locke.
6. (Mus.)
Defn: A hold. See 4th Hold, 7.
Syn.
— Stop; cessation; suspension.
PAUSE
Pause, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Paused; p. pr. & vb. n. Pausing.] Etym:
[Cf. F. pauser, L. pausare. See Pause, n., Pose.]
1. To make a short stop; to cease for a time; to intermit speaking or acting; to stop; to wait; to rest. "Tarry, pause a day or two." Shak. Pausing while, thus to herself she mused. Milton.
2. To be intermitted; to cease; as, the music pauses.
3. To hesitate; to hold back; to delay. [R.] Why doth the Jew pause Take thy forfeiture. Shak.