pair – English noun declension

English noun forms of pair

Noun: pair
Singularpair
Pluralpairs

Sample Sentences

  • Ting, ting, ting! went the bell again. Every body sat down; the curtain shook, rose sufficiently high to display several pair of yellow boots paddling about, and there it remained. [1834 February, “Boz” [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], chapter II, in Sketches by “Boz,” Illustrative of Every-day Life, and Every-day People. […], volume II, London: John Macrone, […], published 1836, →OCLC, page 266:]
  • Day after day, with the stamp and shuffle of sixty pair of bare feet behind me, each pair under a 60-lb. load. [1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 209:]
  • So, one evening, I made a speech in English with gestures, not one of which was lost to the sixty pairs of eyes before me, and the next morning I started the hammock off in front all right. [1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 210:]
  • Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet. Perhaps we assume that our name, address and search preferences will be viewed by some unseen pair of corporate eyes, probably not human, and don't mind that much. [2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18:]
  • I couldn't decide which of the pair of designer shirts I preferred, so I bought the pair.
  • [S]he had finished the second sock, and pulled its pair out of the bag before handing them to her husband. [1992, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Marking Time: Volume 2 of The Cazalet Chronicle, page 74:]
  • Must be good at athletics, home repairs, making mince interesting and finding the pair to the other glove. [1996, Kathy Lette, Mad Cows, page 219:]
  • Spouses should make a great pair.
  • a pair of scissors; two pairs of spectacles; several pairs of jeans
  • A pair is harder to drive than two mounts with separate riders.
  • They turned a pair to end the fifth.
  • The Pirates took a pair from the Phillies.
  • She's got a gorgeous pair.
  • Grow a pair, mate.
  • There were two pairs on the final vote.
  • One-line business is optional; three-line business compulsory; when it's two lines you have to be on parade unless you have secured a 'pair' and cleared it with the 'pairing whip'. [1999, Gyles Brandreth, chapter 3, in Breaking the Code:]
  • 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, “The Sea-Voyage. A Comedy.”, in Fifty Comedies and Tragedies. […], [part 1], London: […] J[ohn] Macock [and H. Hills], for John Martyn, Henry Herringman, and Richard Marriot, published 1679, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 341:]
  • 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 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, “Comprises, among Other Important Matters, Pecksniffian and Architectural, an Exact Relation of the Progress Made by Mr. Pinch in the Confidence and Friendship of the New Pupil”, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC, page 74:]

Nouns inflected like pair

furlong, schnitzel, month, pound, bushel, acre, lion, mile, pair, year, yard,

Etymology

From Middle English paire, from Old French paire, from Latin paria (“equals”), neuter plural of par (“pair”). Related to pār (“equal”, adjective). Compare Saterland Frisian Poor (“pair”), West Frisian pear (“pair”), Dutch paar (“pair”), German Paar (“pair”), Italian paio (“pair”) See: Middle English Nouns 'paire', Latin Nouns 'paria', Dutch Nouns 'paar', German Nouns 'Paar', Italian Nouns 'paio'.

Verbs referencing "pair"

Norwegian Nynorsk Nouns par, Finnish Nouns pari.