Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Pause

Pause (paz) , noun

[French, from Latin pausa. See Pose.]

1.
A temporary stop or rest; an intermission of action; interruption; suspension; cessation.
2.
Temporary inaction or waiting; hesitation; suspence; doubt.
I stand in pause where I shall first begin. — Shakespeare
3.
In speaking or reading aloud, a brief arrest or suspension of voice, to indicate the limits and relations of sentences and their parts.
4.
In writing and printing, a mark indicating the place and nature of an arrest of voice in reading; a punctuation point; as, teach the pupil to mind the pauses.
5.
A break or paragraph in writing.
He writes with warmth, which usually neglects method, and those partitions and pauses which men educated in schools observe. — Locke
6.
(Music) A hold. See 4th Hold, 7.

Pause (pazd) , intransitive verb

[Compare French pauser, Latin pausare. See Pause, n., Pose.]

1.
To make a short stop; to cease for a time; to intermit speaking or acting; to stop; to wait; to rest.
Tarry, pause a day or two. — Shakespeare
Pausing a while, thus to herself she mused. — Milton
2.
To be intermitted; to cease; as, the music pauses.
3.
To hesitate; to hold back; to delay. [Rare]
Why doth the Jew pause? Take thy forfeiture. — Shakespeare
4.
To stop in order to consider; hence, to consider; to reflect. [Rare]
Take time to pause. — Shakespeare
Collocations (1)
To pause upon , to deliberate concerning. — Shakespeare

Pause , transitive verb

To cause to stop or rest; -- used reflexively. [Rare] — Shakespeare