Definition of "pause" []

• To cease or suspend an action temporarily. (verb-intransitive)
• To linger; tarry: paused for a while under the huge oak tree. (verb-intransitive)
• To hesitate: He paused before replying. (verb-intransitive)
• To cease or suspend the action of temporarily; stop for an interim: "Once a movie [ordered on demand] begins, it can be paused but not rewound or fast-forwarded” ( George Judson). (verb-transitive)
• A temporary cessation. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "II. i.32 (159,9) [tho 'she pause] To _pause_ is to rest, to be in quiet."
• "And, of course, it was just hours after President Bush said that he considered the term pause to be misleading because there was going to be no pause in operations."
• ""I think we're probably on a short term pause to really get the fear and the psychology into the right perspective.""