1.
[syn: coupling, mating, pairing, conjugation, union, sexual union]
2. the act of grouping things or people in pairs;
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Pair \Pair\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Paired; p. pr. & vb. n.
Pairing.]
1. To be joined in pairs; to couple; to mate, as for
breeding.
[1913 Webster]
2. To suit; to fit, as a counterpart.
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My heart was made to fit and pair with thine.
--Rowe.
[1913 Webster]
3. Same as To pair off. See phrase below.
[1913 Webster]
To pair off, to separate from a group in pairs or couples;
specif. (Parliamentary Cant), to agree with one of the
opposite party or opinion to abstain from voting on
specified questions or issues. See Pair, n., 6.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Pairing \Pair"ing\, n. [See Pair, v. i.]
1. The act or process of uniting or arranging in pairs or
couples.
[1913 Webster]
2. See To pair off, under Pair, v. i.
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Pairing time, the time when birds or other animals pair.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
pairing
n 1: the act of pairing a male and female for reproductive
purposes; "the casual couplings of adolescents"; "the
mating of some species occurs only in the spring" [syn:
coupling, mating, pairing, conjugation, union,
sexual union]
2: the act of grouping things or people in pairs
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
67 Moby Thesaurus words for "pairing":
Janus, agglomeration, agglutination, aggregation, ambiguity,
ambivalence, articulation, biformity, bifurcation, bond,
bracketing, clustering, combination, communication, concatenation,
concourse, concurrence, confluence, congeries, conglomeration,
conjugation, conjunction, connection, convergence, copulation,
coupling, dichotomy, doubleness, doublethink, doubling, dualism,
duality, duplexity, duplication, duplicity, equivocality,
gathering, halving, hookup, intercommunication, intercourse,
interlinking, irony, joinder, joining, jointure, junction,
knotting, liaison, linkage, linking, marriage, meeting, merger,
merging, polarity, splice, symbiosis, tie, tie-in, tie-up,
twinning, two-facedness, twoness, unification, union, yoking