| / English Dictionary |
RACING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The sport of engaging in contests of speed
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("racing" is a kind of...):
athletics; sport (an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition)
Domain member category:
stretch (a straightaway section of a racetrack)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "racing"):
auto racing; car racing (the sport of racing automobiles)
boat racing (the sport of racing boats)
camel racing (the sport of racing camels)
greyhound racing (the sport of racing greyhounds)
horse racing (the sport of racing horses)
Derivation:
race (compete in a race)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb race
Context examples:
I owned that the Houyhnhnms among us, whom we called horses, were the most generous and comely animals we had; that they excelled in strength and swiftness; and when they belonged to persons of quality, were employed in travelling, racing, or drawing chariots; they were treated with much kindness and care, till they fell into diseases, or became foundered in the feet; but then they were sold, and used to all kind of drudgery till they died; after which their skins were stripped, and sold for what they were worth, and their bodies left to be devoured by dogs and birds of prey.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
There, clinging to the stout halliards of the sheet, he gazed with amazement at the long lines of black waves, each with its curling ridge of foam, racing in endless succession from out the inexhaustible west. A huge sombre cloud, flecked with livid blotches, stretched over the whole seaward sky-line, with long ragged streamers whirled out in front of it.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I had scarcely opened my mouth to issue the necessary commands, when eager men were springing to halyards and downhauls, and others were racing aloft.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
‘Our own colours, green and white.’ Sounds like racing. ‘Green open, white shut.’ That is clearly a signal. ‘Main stair, first corridor, seventh right, green baize.’ This is an assignation.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The fishing-boats are racing for home, and rise and dip in the ground swell as they sweep into the harbour, bending to the scuppers.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
The talk was always such as I had already heard at the Pavilion: talk of politics, talk of the King’s health, talk of the Prince’s extravagance, of the expected renewal of war, of horse-racing, and of the ring.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Next, he was no longer an onlooker but was himself in the canoe, Moti was crying out, they were both thrusting hard with their paddles, racing on the steep face of the flying turquoise.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Sail had been made in the early watches, so that the Ghost was racing along under everything except the two topsails and the flying jib.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
“Let us walk along the cliffs together and search for flint arrows. We are more likely to find them than clues to this problem. To let the brain work without sufficient material is like racing an engine. It racks itself to pieces. The sea air, sunshine, and patience, Watson—all else will come.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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