I. verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a brief pause
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There was a brief pause before he replied.
long silence/pause/delay etc
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There was a long silence before anybody spoke.
pause a moment (= stop speaking or doing something for a short time )
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Lisa paused a moment, then said 'yes'.
pause for breath
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She talked solidly for five minutes, hardly pausing for breath.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
briefly
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Her erratic gaze paused briefly on the broken nail she was picking with her other hand.
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She paused briefly to tidy her hair and smooth the creases from her skirt, then led the way into the house.
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Closing the door behind me I paused briefly and listened.
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Henri paused briefly under an archway, a glimmer of sadness pulsing within him.
only
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He would pause only to take a meal in the dining-room, where he would sell his pens to visiting salesmen.
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They eat almost continuously for a month, pausing only to shed their skins several times to accommodate their ever-increasing bodies.
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He paused only the once, gazing down at the burnt meat that had been his friend and comrade for so long.
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Astonished Humberside airport workers watched the bosses pause only to check their briefcases and take souvenir snaps of their twin-engine plane.
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He paused only to shake the wet from his shoulders, then trod up the slippery slope to the house door.
■ NOUN
breath
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She paused for breath and found her hand on the grey standing stone.
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He stops, pausing for breath .
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At the top of the cliff we paused to catch our breath and look around.
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They would pause for breath , swear, and then come together again, their fists up, moving in.
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We clung together, breathless, until we had to pause for breath .
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Then, without pausing for breath or breaking her stride, she pushed open the door of his private office.
door
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He turned and headed for the door where he paused for a moment.
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Outside the door she paused , breathing the chill and chilling air.
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As he passed Jenny's door he paused momentarily, but shook his head at himself and went on down the stairs.
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Alison accompanied him to the door , where they paused .
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Outside Phoebe's open bedroom door Rachel paused , wondering if her daughter had heard the explosion and responded to it.
doorway
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Despite all her resolution, she paused outside the plate-glass doorway and looked around guiltily.
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She paused in the doorway leading to the grey corridor that ran across the back of the house.
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The clerk glared angrily at him as he paused in the doorway .
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She paused in the doorway of Nathan's room.
moment
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The clanging made Noddy pause for a moment which allowed Geoffrey to get out into the front path.
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He paused for a moment , increasing the magnification on the microscope.
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Let us pause , for a moment , to note what that would entail.
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Let's pause for a moment , while I ask you to imagine the smell of newly baked bread or freshly percolated coffee.
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He paused for a moment , his head bowed in silent prayer.
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Stop and think Let's pause for a moment and think about this issue of arguments and the learning process.
thought
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Their sparring for position of least-favoured son gave me pause for thought .
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Then he paused to collect his thoughts .
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Hidden hostilities have given you pause for thought .
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It has affected me and made me pause for thought .
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Back to the other chair, and so on - moving every time you pause for thought .
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
pregnant pause/silence
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The problem with his lofty sentiments and pregnant pauses was that they were completely eclipsed by his reputation.
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There was a long silence - what I think might be called a pregnant pause.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Pausing briefly at the door, Linus straightened his tie.
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Jill paused for a moment to look at her notes.
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Kim was reading her e-mail, but she paused and looked up when I came in.
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Lawrence paused and turned to me: "Look, if you don't think it's a good idea, don't go."
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She talked for about twenty minutes without even pausing for breath.
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We waited while Graham paused to light a cigarette.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Arriving back at the cottage for the last time Ludens paused to look and listen.
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Children can run through without pausing.
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Her heart leaped into her mouth, and she paused.
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It was unusual for Hal to pause so long.
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Subjects might pause out of habit at points where it would be appropriate for them to pause when reading aloud.
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The two girls paused, grimy and breathless, in the middle of the sick display.
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There are ways of pausing records that really are interesting.
II. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
awkward
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His eyebrows rose slightly at her scarcely hidden hostility, and there was an awkward pause .
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An awkward pause swelled in the room.
brief
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Just a few words, but there was a nod of understanding, the briefest pause , before the two men stood.
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There was a brief pause , then the caller tried again.
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Balvinder Singh dropped me outside during a brief pause in the rain.
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But there was a brief and uncharacteristic pause before he continued.
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The brief pause while he slipped off his clothing was like agony; then he was next to her, hard and demanding.
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At last, when there was a brief pause , Woodruffe cleared his throat.
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Disconnected speech Brief pauses are required in the speech to discriminate between different words.
long
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After a long pause , she nodded and the story emerged of a stillbirth she had experienced in her early twenties.
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A long pause , then the pointer went to fifty.
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Just a long , sad pause .
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The presence of the light was sufficient to reduce the number of long pauses by 35 percent.
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There was a long pause during which Julian, instantly defensive, took stock of the situation.
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The most consistent paratone-final marker is the long pause , normally exceeding one second.
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After a long pause , yes.
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Apparently they did, for there was a long pause before the door hissed open.
momentary
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Algernon Peckham glanced at him, and there was a momentary pause before he moved on to speak to James Pegg.
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Their faces were blue, and their stillness not a mass death but as though a momentary pause in group exercise.
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There was a momentary pause , and then the sentence he had typed was repeated in soft tones through the right-hand earpiece.
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The momentary pause had turned suspicion into certainty.
pregnant
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The problem with his lofty sentiments and pregnant pauses was that they were completely eclipsed by his reputation.
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There was a long silence - what I think might be called a pregnant pause .
short
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After a short pause to watch us, she passed on surrounded by the Lord Lieutenant of Dorset and other local dignitaries.
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I said after a short pause .
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In speech, however, this division is marked by intonation as well as by a short pause .
slight
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Then the slight pause , the half-second of calm and false progress.
■ NOUN
button
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Both machines have a pause button for interruptions.
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Everything freezes on the court, like some one has hit the pause button and suspended the characters in a movie.
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Every few seconds, Jody hits the pause button , freezing a frame to show them how out of position they are.
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Remember when we talked about the pause button on a video camera?
■ VERB
give
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Knowing what Edmund has done to his real father might have given Cornwall pause before proclaiming himself the next one.
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Even seemingly innocuous turnstile-exits with interlocking horizontal bars give my sister pause , however.
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The title itself gives pause for thought.
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The breadth of this holding gives one pause .
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It is a comparison which should give pause to those tempted automatically to condemn the Government.
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But it gave you some pause to think of what else might be crawling around there.
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But the example of Handel's operas and Weber's Euryanthe give one pause .
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The ease with which the supposedly neutral prosecutorial apparatus is manipulated should give us all pause .
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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After a brief pause , Sharon said, "You're right."
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After a long pause , Barney said: "Yes, I suppose you're right."
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There was a pause in the conversation as everyone turned to say hello to Paul.
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We worked for four hours without a pause .
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Balvinder Singh dropped me outside during a brief pause in the rain.
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Even seemingly innocuous turnstile-exits with interlocking horizontal bars give my sister pause , however.
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I said after a short pause .
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So if pauses are necessary, it is legitimate to ask what a speaker is doing during these periods of silence.
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The best he could do to simulate this pause for reflection, was to use repetition at certain points.
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There was a long pause , then, before it observed that some-thing was falling down toward it from the orbiting ship.
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There was no pause among them, no need to conjure either the memory or the boat itself.