Pause ‘definition’

noun

1.

a temporary stop or rest, especially in speech oraction:

a short pause after each stroke of the oar.

2.

a cessation of activity because of doubt oruncertainty; a momentary hesitation.

3.

any comparatively brief stop, delay, wait, etc.:

I would like to make a pause in my talk and continue after lunch.

Dictionary.com

pause |pɔːz|

verb [ no obj. ]

interrupt action or speech briefly: she paused, at a loss for words.
• [ with obj. ] temporarily interrupt the operation of (a process or device): she had paused a tape on the VCR.

noun

a temporary stop in action or speech: she dropped me outside during a brief pause in the rain | [ mass noun ] : he chattered away without pause.
• Music a mark over a note or rest that is to be lengthened by an unspecified amount.
• (also pause button)a control allowing the temporary interruption of recording, playback, or other process.

PHRASES

give pause to someone (or give someone pause for thought)
cause someone to think carefully or hesitate before doing something: the sight of these gives any would-be attacker pause for thought.

ORIGIN
late Middle English: from Old French, from Latin pausa, from Greek pausis, from pausein ‘to stop’.

Apple Dictionary

pause

noun
there was a pause in the conversation: stop, cessation, break, halt, stoppage, standstill, interruption, check, lull, respite, stay, breathing space, discontinuation, discontinuance, hiatus, gap, lapse (of time), interlude, intermission, interval, entr’acte; adjournment, suspension, moratorium, interregnum; rest, time out, stopover, delay, hold-up, wait; hesitation, beat, caesura; informal let-up, breather.

verb
Hannah paused for a moment before answering: stop, cease, halt, discontinue, break off, take a break, take a breath; adjourn, desist, rest, hold back, wait, delay, hesitate, hang back, pull up, mark time, falter, waver; informal let up, take a breather. ANTONYMS continue, proceed.

Pause

Noun

a short period in which something such as a sound or an activity is stoppedbefore starting again:

There will be a brief pause in the proceedings while the piano is moved into place.

After a long, awkward pause, someone finally askeda question.

She spoke for three quarters of an hour without so much as a pause.

There followed a pregnant (= filled with meaning)pause in which neither of them knew what to say.

[ U ] also pause button [ C ] a button or controlthat allows you to stop a recording for a short time:

I pressed pause/the pause button so I could go make a cup of tea.

​

[ C ] uk specialized music a period of silencebetween musical notes, or a symbol that represents this

Synonym

rest

​

[ C ] specialized music a symbol in musicmeaning that a note or rest should be heldfor longer than normal

 

It’s quite interesting, reading through the variety of definitions in this sense. A lot of them interestingly have a somewhat negative or uncomfortable connotation.

‘long, awkward pause’

‘a cessation of activity because of doubt oruncertainty; a momentary hesitation.’

‘stop, delay, wait,’

Interrupt. Pause ‘lost for words’

‘brief pause in the rain’

‘hesitate’

‘interruption’

This is not the case throughout, but my mind is thinking about what I think of as a pause, and then the overall thoughts on a pause. We aren’t necessarily always comfortable with a pause, in this day and age, in this part of the Western world, when there is ‘nothing’, there is fault, we have somehow fallen short by not being energised wth a billion words or objects or actions. Somehow in not communicating through sound we are unable to this or communicate at all, we are dumb, or un-iteresting…. But is that ultimately true? When the music comes to an end and we are finally left with that moment, the reverberations still hovering on the edge of our perceptions and stillness takes over, is that hollow, is that moment of ‘silence’ in reality lacking?

I’ve said it before and will for a hundred times. In the silence and pause we find the moment accept, understand, take in, feel. Really feel and experience something, not just on the edges but all the way through.