grace
see also: Grace
Pronunciation Noun

grace

  1. (countable, uncountable) Charming, pleasing quality#Noun|qualities.
    The Princess brought grace to an otherwise dull and boring party.
    • 1699, Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet, Heads designed for an essay on conversations ↗
      Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
    • I have formerly given the general character of Mr. Addison's style and manner as natural and unaffected, easy and polite, and full of those graces which a flowery imagination diffuses over writing.
  2. (countable) A short#Adjective|short prayer of thanks before or after a meal.
    It has become less common to say grace before having dinner.
  3. (countable, card games) In the game#Noun|games of patience or solitaire: a special#Adjective|special move#Noun|move that is normally against the rule#Noun|rules.
  4. (countable, music) A grace note.
  5. (uncountable) Elegant movement; balance#Noun|balance or poise#Noun|poise.
    The dancer moved with grace and strength.
  6. (uncountable, finance) An allowance of time#Noun|time grant#Verb|granted to a debtor during which he or she is free#Adjective|free of at least part of his normal obligations towards the creditor.
    The repayment of the loan starts after a three-year grace.
    • 1990, Claude de Bèze, 1688 revolution in Siam: the memoir of Father de Bèze, s.j ↗, translated by E. W. Hutchinson, University Press, page 153:
      With mounting anger the King denounced the pair, both father and son, and was about to condemn them to death when his strength gave out. Faint and trembling he was unable to walk and the sword fell from his hands as he murmured: 'May the Protector of the Buddhist Faith grant me but seven more days grace of life to be quit of this disloyal couple, father and son'.
  7. (uncountable, theology) free#Adjective|Free and undeserved favour#Noun|favour, especially of God; unmerited divine#Adjective|divine assistance given to human#Noun|humans for their regeneration or sanctification, or for resisting sin#Noun|sin.
    I’m so grateful to God for the grace that He has given me.
  8. An act or decree of the governing body of an English university.
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

grace (graces, present participle gracing; past and past participle graced)

  1. (transitive) To adorn; to decorate; to embellish and dignify.
    He graced the room with his presence.
    He graced the room by simply being there.
    His portrait graced a landing on the stairway.
    • 1703, Alexander Pope, transl., “The Thebais of Statius”, in The Works of Alexander Pope, London: H. Lintont et al., published 1751:
      Great Jove and Phoebus graced his noble line.
    • 1591, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act V, scene iii]:
      We are graced with wreaths of victory.
  2. (transitive) To dignify or raise by an act of favour; to honour.
    • He might, at his pleasure, grace or disgrace whom he would in court.
  3. (transitive) To supply with heavenly grace.
  4. (transitive, music) To add grace notes, cadenzas, etc., to.
Synonyms Translations
Grace
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ɡɹeɪs/
Proper noun
  1. A female given name.
    • 1648 Robert Herrick, Hesperides:
      To The Handsome Mistress Grace Potter: As is your name, so is your comely face / Touch'd everywhere with such a diffused grace /
    • 1839 George William MacArthur Reynolds: Grace Darling, or the Heroine of the Fern Islands: page 24:
      Grace does not belie her name; for she is indeed a sweet girl, modest and unassuming, and appearing to be unconscious of having done anything great or noble. - OBSERVER, Dec.16, 1838.
    • 1965 Naomi Long Madgett: Her Story, Star By Star, Harlo Press :
      They named me Grace and waited for a light and agile dancer. / But some trick of genes mixed me up / And instead I turned out big and black and burly.
    • 2002 Deborah Paul, Amazing Grace, Indianapolis Monthly, June 2002, page 249:
      Had I given birth to a daughter of my own, I'd like to have called her Grace, a classic and poetic name, one that illuminates a person of dignity and poise.
  2. Surname
  3. A city in Idaho.
  4. An unincorporated community in Kentucky.
  5. An unincorporated community in Mississippi.
Translations


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