2.[intransitiveI, transitiveT] to push a button on a CDplayer, DVD player etc in order to make a CD, DVD etc stop playing for a short time 〔按暂停键〕(使)暂停播放
nCOLLOCATIONS
adverbs
briefly
At the doorway she paused briefly.
momentarily (=for a very short time)
He paused momentarily, then knocked twice more.
dramatically
'They have offered us a lot of money.' She paused dramatically.
phrases
pause (for) a moment
He paused for a moment, seemingly overcome by emotion.
pause for breath
She had to pause for breath after every two or three steps.
pause for thought
'Of course, ' she replied, without pausing for thought.
pause for effect (=in order to make people eager to hear what you are going to say)
'Now I know what to do, ' Brown said, pausing for effect.
pause only to do something
He paused only to make a few notes, and left.
nTHESAURUS
pause to stop speaking or stop doing something for a very short time before starting again. Pause is used especially in writtendescriptions. In everyday spoken English, people usually just say stop
She paused at the bottom of the stairs and looked up at the clock.
He paused, waiting for Larry to say something.
hesitate to stop for a moment and wait before doing something, because you feel unsure or nervous about it
She hesitated for a moment before replying.
have/take a break to stop working for a short time in order to rest, eat etc
We’re all getting tired. Let’s take a break for ten minutes.
adjourn formal if a meeting or courtadjourns or is adjourned, it stops for a short time
If there are no more questions, the committee will adjourn until tomorrow morning.
The trial was adjourned because one of the defendants was ill.
take five especially American EnglishAmE informal to stop for a short time in order to rest
Let’s take five and get some coffee.
break off to suddenly stop speaking, especially because you see, hear, or think of something
He broke off his conversation when he saw Mary running towards him.
She broke off and looked embarrassed, then said, ‘I’ll explain later.’
Examples from the Corpus
pause• Children can run through without pausing.• Her heartleaped into her mouth, and she paused.• Kim was reading her e-mail, but she paused and looked up when I came in.• Lawrence paused and turned to me: "Look, if you don't think it's a good idea, don't go."• Pausing briefly at the door, Linus straightened his tie.• Jill paused for a moment to look at her notes.• She talked for about twenty minutes without even pausing for breath.• The two girlspaused, grimy and breathless, in the middle of the sickdisplay.• Subjects might pause out of habit at points where it would be appropriate for them to pause when reading aloud.• There are ways of pausingrecords that really are interesting.• It was unusual for Hal to pause so long.• We waited while Graham paused to light a cigarette.• Arriving back at the cottage for the last time Ludens paused to look and listen.
1PAUSEa short time during which someone stops speaking or doing something before starting again 暂停,停顿
There was a pause while Alice changed the tape.
艾丽斯换磁带的时候出现了短暂的停顿。
After a long pause, she went on.
停了好一会儿,她才继续下去。
pause in
an awkward pause in the conversation
谈话中尴尬的停顿
2. (also pause button) a control which allows you to stop a CD player, DVD player etc for a short time and start it again 暂停键
3.APMa mark ( ) over a musical note, showing that the note is to be played or sung longer than usual 〔音符上的〕延长记号
4give somebody pause (for thought)THINK ABOUTto make someone stop and consider carefully what they are doing 使某人停下来(仔细考虑)
an avoidable accident that should give us all pause for thought
应能让我们都停下来反思的一次本可以避免的事故
Examples from the Corpus
give somebody pause (for thought)• Even seemingly innocuous turnstile-exits with interlockinghorizontalbarsgive my sister pause, however.• Knowing what Edmund has done to his realfather might have given Cornwall pause before proclaiming himself the next one.• High real estate prices have given potential buyers pause.• Yet the offer seems to have given Burton no pause.• The breadth of this holding gives one pause.• But it gave you some pause to think of what else might be crawling around there.• It gave him pause, but soon enough he had his own retort.-Yeah, right.• Their sparring for position of least-favoured songave me pause for thought.
nCOLLOCATIONS
adjectives
a long pause
There was a long pause before anyone spoke.
a brief/short/slight pause
"Well, that was a surprise, " he said after a brief pause.
a momentary pause (=very short)
There was a momentary pause during which Mr Hammond glanced at his wife.
an awkward pause
After an awkward pause, Ray began to answer my question.
a dramatic pause (=one that has a dramatic effect)
In the dramatic pause before she replied, you could feel the tension in the room.
a pregnant pause (=one that is full of meaning or emotion)
‘OK. Let’s move on, ’ said the president after a pregnant pause.
long pause• After a long pause he looked up and saw the stones held tightly in their hands.• Then there was a long pause during which Sophie drank her coffee and avoided looking at her companion.• There was a long pause on the other end, and for a moment Quinn thought the caller had hung up.• There was a long pause, then, before it observed that some-thing was falling down toward it from the orbiting ship.• They heard him in the bathroom, running the water, then breaking a tumbler between long pauses.• The presence of the light was sufficient to reduce the number of long pauses by 35 percent.• In 1897, after an uncommonly long pause of more than four years, an eleventhson was born.• After an unnaturally long pause Constance became aware of this.
Originpause2
(1400-1500)Latinpausa, from Greekpausis, from pauein“to stop”