- pause
- pause n Pause, recess, respite, lull, intermission are comparable when they mean a temporary cessation especially in action, in activity, or in movement.Pause, though it carries an implication of expected resumption, stresses the fact of stopping without indicating, in itself, the duration or the cause of the stop. The term is often applied to such a letup in utterance as that marked in printing by a period or a caesura or as that caused by an interruption, by hesitation, or by awaiting an answer, but it may quite as readily be applied to a temporary cessation of activity (as for play, for sleep, or for relaxation){
there was a short pause before he resumed speaking
}{between the dark and the daylight . . . comes a pause in the day's occupations, that is known as the Children's Hour— Longfellow
}{there is no pause in the invention of new and appalling weapons— Grenville Clark
}Recess implies a temporary cessation of work; usually it applies to an interval granted (as to legislators or students) for the sake of relaxation or diversion{the smaller boys and girls are granted a recess of ten minutes each morning
}{Parliament is now in recess
}{the justices adjourned for their summer recess—N. Y. Times
}Respite implies a time of relief (as from labor, suffering, or war) or of delay (as before sentencing or executing){there will be no respite for such workers for the duration of the war
}{a battle that seemed to be without respite and without end— R'ol- vaag
}{a body of people . . . thrown together for a week or so without the possibility of respite or escape— Lowes
}Lull implies a temporary cessation or marked decline of activity (as in the course of a storm, in business, or in military activity between two offensives){after a lull the storm turned inland with increased fury
}{running full tilt in most of its departments following a summer lull— Ericson
}{there was a lull in the noises of insects as if they . . . were making a devotional pause— Crane
}Intermission basically implies a break in continuity but comes close to lull in stressing one caused by a temporary cessation (as of an action, a process, or a proceeding). However, its application is usually quite different since it usually suggests a pause available for some new or special activity (as for rest or recuperation){the habit of stern thrift, begun in 1870 and practiced without any intermission till . . . 1897— Bennett
}{the attack recurred after a few days' intermission
}{he often gives himself some intermission from such melancholy reflections— Burke
}{several persons gathered around to talk during the intermission between the acts of a play
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
