Race

n. [Fr. race, Pr., Sp., & Pg. raza, It. razza, from O. H. Ger. reiza, line; not from the Lat. radix, root, though in some of its senses influenced by it.] 1. The descendants of a common ancestor; a family, tribe, people, or nation, believed or presumed to belong to the same stock; a lineage; a breed. Hence the long race of Alban fathers come. Dryden. Naturalists and ethnographers divide mankind into several distinct varieties or races. Cuvier refers them all to three; Pritchard enumerates seven; Agassiz eight; Pickering describes eleven; but the common classification is that of Blumenbach, who makes five. First is the Caucasian, or white race, to which belong the greater part of the European nations and those of Western Asia; second, the Mongolian, or yellow race, occupying Tartary, China, Japan, &c.; third, the Ethiopian, or negro race, occupying all Africa, except the north; fourth, the American, or red race, containing the Indians of North and South America; and, fifth, the Malayan, or brown race, occupying the islands of the Indian Archipelago, &c. Caucasian Race. 2. Company; herd. For do but note a wild and wanton herd, A race of youthful and unhandled colts, Fetching mad bounds. Shak.

3. (Bot.) A marked variety which may be propagated by seed. Henslow.
4. Peculiar flavor, taste, or strength of wine; that quality, or assemblage of qualities, which indicate origin in a noble or precious wine; hence, characteristic flavor; smack. “A race of heaven.” Shak.

There came not six days since from Hull a pipe Of rich canary. Is it of the right race? Massinger. 5. Hence, characteristic quality or disposition. And now I give my sensual race the rein. Shak. They must owe it to some . . . great race of fancy or judgment in contrivance. Sir Wm. Temple. 6. A root. “A race or two of ginger.” Shak. Syn.—Lineage; line; family; house; breed; offspring; progeny; issue.

n. [A-S. ræs, Icel. rās, course, rāsa, to run.] 1. A progress; a course; a movement or progression of any kind; hence, a method or course of action or effort; train; process. “My race of glory run.” Pope. The race of life becomes a hopeless flight To those that walk in darkness. Byron. 2. Especially, swift progress; rapid course or motion; a running. The flight of many birds is swifter than the race of any beast. Bacon. 3. Hence, the act or process of running in competition; contest of speed; trial of speed to win a prize, or the like; in the plural, a meeting for contests in the running of horses. I wield the gauntlet, and I run the race. Pope.

4. A strong or rapid current of water, or the channel or passage for such a current; a powerful current or heavy sea, sometimes produced by the meeting of two tides; as, the Portland race; the race of Alderney. Halliwell.
5. A canal or watercourse leading from a dam to a water-wheel which it drives; — sometimes called the head-race, in opposition to the tail-race, which is the watercourse leading from the bottom of a water-wheel; a mill-race.