pair

Less common meanings

7. 7
   one of twonouncountable

   Either one of the two matching items that together form a set.

   She kept searching for the pair to her favorite cufflink.

   Without its pair, a single chopstick is nearly useless.

   UsageUsually its pair or the pair to something: I can't find its pair.

   Similarmate, match, partner, twin, counterpart

   Note

   Here the word names one half rather than the whole: the second sock, the other glove. The usual context is loss or search, because one item is called the pair of another mostly when it has gone missing.

8. 8
   pokernouncountable

   In poker, two cards of the same rank, or a hand whose highest-ranking combination consists of two such cards.

   He bluffed his way to the pot holding only a pair of fives.

   He went all in with just a pair of fours and lost to a straight.

   UsagePlayers name the rank: a pair of aces. Two pairs of different ranks, such as aces and kings, are called two pair.

   Note

   Poker names a hand by its best reading, so a hand counts as a pair only when nothing better is hiding in it. Two kings plus a third king make three of a kind, and two kings plus another matched set make two pair, with the old unchanged plural. It is the weakest hand that holds any combination at all, beating only a hand built on its high card.

9. 9
   verbtransitive

   Of animals, to come together or be brought together as a couple for mating.

   The kennel will pair the retriever with a registered sire next spring.

   Farmers carefully paired their cattle to improve the herd.

   UsageUsually pair one animal with another: pair the mare with a stallion.

   Similarmate, breed, couple

10. 10
    nouncountable

    In a parliament, an arrangement in which two members of opposing parties both agree not to vote, so that one's absence cancels out the other's.

    The backbenchers arranged a pair before heading home for the recess.

    Because of the pair, neither side gained any advantage from the absences.

    Note

    Party discipline explains why members want one. Gyles Brandreth's Breaking the Code (1999) sets out the rules: one-line business is optional and three-line business compulsory. On a two-line whip you must attend unless you have secured a pair and cleared it with the pairing whip. Pairs are counted on a division, as in two pairs on the final vote, and the verb is to pair. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Party discipline creates a reason for members to arrange pairs when absent. researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk
    • Gyles Brandreth wrote Breaking the Code, first published in 1999. openlibrary.org
    • Brandreth describes one-line business as optional and three-line business as compulsory. en.wiktionary.org
    • Brandreth says two-line business requires attendance unless a pair has been secured and approved by the pairing whip. en.wiktionary.org
11. 11
    verbintransitive

    To agree with a member holding opposite views that both will abstain from voting on a particular question or class of questions.

    Two senators chose to pair rather than interrupt their travel for a minor vote.

    She arranged to pair with an opponent before missing the division.

    Note

    The verb behind the parliamentary arrangement: a member pairs with an opponent, or two members pair, and both stay away from the vote. It is the ordinary parliamentary term for this informal courtesy, used alongside “arranged a pair” and “was paired.” Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Members with opposing views agree not to vote. parliament.uk
    • Pairing is an informal arrangement, not officially recognised by the House of Commons. parliament.uk
    • The parliamentary verb is labelled slang. en.wiktionary.org
12. 12
    two gamesnouncolloquialcountable

    Two games played on the same day between the same teams, also called a doubleheader.

    The visiting team dropped both ends of the pair to the league leaders.

    Our team split Sunday's pair, losing the opener but winning the nightcap.

    UsageTeams take, split or sweep a pair, or drop both ends of one.

    Similardoubleheader

13. 13
    rowing boatnouncountable

    A racing shell crewed by two sweep rowers, each pulling a single oar.

    Their pair held a narrow lead through the middle of the race.

    Moving from a four into a pair forced the rowers to sharpen their balance.

    Note

    Rowing names its boats by the size of the crew, and the pair is the smallest sweep boat. Each of its two rowers pulls a single oar, one on each side. Races distinguish the coxless pair from the coxed pair, which carries a coxswain to steer. Like a four, the word names the boat by the number of rowers in it. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • Rowing boat names reflect the number of rowers. usrowing.org
    • The pair is the smallest sweep boat and has two rowers. gomotionapp.com
    • Each rower uses one oar, with the two oars on opposite sides. en.wikipedia.org
    • Coxless and coxed pairs are distinct boat types; the coxed pair adds a coxswain who steers. britishrowing.org
    • A four has four rowers, so its name likewise reflects the number of rowers. rowsnrc.ca
14. 14
    breastsnounslangcountable

    A woman's breasts, especially as the object of crude or jocular slang.

    The locker-room banter about a coworker's pair left her deeply uncomfortable.

    He bragged crudely about her pair until his friends told him to stop.

    Note

    This slang works by leaving the noun out: a pair of breasts becomes simply a pair, and the listener supplies the rest. The same clipped pattern produces the slang for testicles. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • In this slang sense, a pair can stand for a pair of breasts, with the complement left unspoken. en.wiktionary.org
    • The testicle sense likewise occurs with the reference to testicles omitted. en.wiktionary.org
15. 15
    testiclesnounslangcountable

    A slang term for the testicles, treated together as a pair.

    After landing hard on the bike's crossbar, he joked that he wasn't sure he still had a pair.

    His teammates laughed and told him to grow a pair and jump off the high dive.

    UsageUsed in grow a pair, a coarse way to tell someone to be brave.

    Note

    The clipping here lives mostly in one idiom, grow a pair, a blunt demand that someone find some nerve. It treats courage as a body part, and that is exactly what makes it coarse. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Grow a pair is a clipped expression. en.wiktionary.org
    • Grow a pair means to show courage. en.wiktionary.org
16. 16
    work animalsnouncountable

    Two working animals harnessed or yoked together so they pull or labor as a single team.

    A matched pair of mules hauled the plow through the heavy clay.

    The farmer harnessed a pair of mules to pull the plow through the rocky field.

    Similarteam, yoke, span

17. 17
    cricketnouncountable

    In cricket, a batter's score of zero, a duck, in each innings of a two-innings match.

    The opener walked off with a pair after edging behind in both innings.

    Avoiding a pair was the only consolation in his miserable game.

    Note

    Cricket's name for the bleakest match record a batter can have: out for nothing, twice. The fuller names are a pair of spectacles or simply spectacles, which make the two noughts on the scorecard easy to picture. When a batter is dismissed off the very first ball in both innings, the result is called a king pair. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • A pair means being dismissed without scoring in both innings of a match. en.wikipedia.org
    • Pair of spectacles and spectacles are alternative names. en.wiktionary.org
    • The spectacles image refers to the two zero scores. en.wikipedia.org
    • Dismissal on the first ball faced in each innings is a king pair. en.wikipedia.org
18. 18
    nounarchaic

    A set, or a number of things that resemble one another or belong together.

    It would never do, you know, for me to be plunging myself into poverty and shabbiness and love in one room up three pair of stairs, and all that sort of thing.

    1842, Charles Dickens, “Comprises, among Other Important Matters, Pecksniffian and Architectural, an Exact Relation of the Progress Made by…

    Thou lieſt; I ha’ nothing buy my ſkin, / And my cloaths; my ſword here, and my ſelf; / Two Crowns in my pocket; two pair of Cards; / And three falſe Dice: I can ſwim like a fiſh / Raſcal, nothing to hinder me.

    c. 1622, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger

    Note

    An older, looser pair meant a set, not necessarily two. A pair of cards was a deck: Fletcher and Massinger's The Sea-Voyage (c. 1622) gives a rogue “two pair of Cards” and three false dice. A pair of stairs was a flight, so Dickens in the 1840s could put love in one room “up three pair of stairs.” In old texts, read such phrases as sets rather than couples. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • An older meaning of pair was a set, not necessarily two things. en.wiktionary.org
    • A pair of cards meant a deck. upload.wikimedia.org
    • A character possesses two pair of Cards and three false dice. gutenberg.org
    • A pair of stairs meant a flight. en.wiktionary.org
    • Dickens used the quoted expression in the 1840s. en.wikipedia.org
    • Dickens's text places love in one room up three pair of stairs. gutenberg.org
19. 19
    verbobsoletetransitive

    To make or become worse; to impair or deteriorate.

    'No faith so fast', quoth she, 'but flesh does pair'

    1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene

    Why dreghis þou þis dole, & deris þi seluyn? / Lefe of þis Langore, as my lefe brother, / Þat puttes þe to payne and peires þi sight.

    a. 1376?, Sir Hugh Eglintoun (uncertain), The “Gest Hystoriale” of the Destruction of Troy

    Note

    Spenser's Faerie Queene (1590) uses it: “No faith so fast… but flesh does pair.” Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Spenser's Faerie Queene was first published in 1590. celm.folger.edu
    • The Faerie Queene contains the quoted use of pair. gutenberg.org
20. 20
    nouncolloquial

    In baseball, a single play in which the fielding side records two outs.
21. 21
    noun

    In a mechanism, two elements joined so as to constrain their relative motion, named for the motion permitted, as in a turning pair or sliding pair.