grace

Etymology

From Middle English grace, from Old French grace (modern French grâce), from Latin grātia (“kindness, favour, esteem”), from grātus (“pleasing”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerH- (“to praise, welcome”); compare grateful. The word displaced the native Middle English held, hield (“grace”) (from Old English held, hyld (“grace”)), Middle English este (“grace, favour, pleasure”) (from Old English ēste (“grace, kindness, favour”)), Middle English athmede(n) (“grace”) (from Old English ēadmēdu (“grace”)), Middle English are, ore (“grace, mercy, honour”) (from Old English ār (“honour, grace, kindness, mercy”)).

noun

1. (countable, uncountable) Charming, pleasing qualities.
   The Princess brought grace to an otherwise dull and boring party.
   Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it. 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations
   I have formerly given the general character of Mr. Addison's style and manner as natural and unaffected, easy and polite, and full of those graces which a flowery imagination diffuses over writing. 1783, Hugh Blair, “Critical Examniation of the Style of Mr. Addison in No. 411 of The Spectator”, in Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres
2. (countable) A short prayer of thanks before or after a meal.
   It has become less common to say grace before having dinner.
3. (countable, card games) In the games of patience or solitaire: a special move that is normally against the rules.
4. (countable, music) A grace note.
   The Trill being the most usual Grace, is usually made in Closes, Cadences, and when on a long Note Exclamation or Passion is expressed, there the Trill is made in the latter part of such Note; but most usually upon binding Notes and such Notes as precede the closing Note. 1683, John Playford, An Introduction to the Skill of Musick: In Three Books, page 47
5. (uncountable) Elegant movement; balance or poise.
   The dancer moved with grace and strength.
6. (uncountable, finance) An allowance of time granted to a debtor during which he or she is free of at least part of his normal obligations towards the creditor.
   The repayment of the loan starts after a three-year grace.
   With mounting anger the King denounced the pair, both father and son, and was about to condemn them to death when his strength gave out. Faint and trembling he was unable to walk and the sword fell from his hands as he murmured: 'May the Protector of the Buddhist Faith grant me but seven more days grace of life to be quit of this disloyal couple, father and son'. 1990, Claude de Bèze, translated by E. W. Hutchinson, 1688 revolution in Siam: the memoir of Father de Bèze, s.j, University Press, page 153
7. (uncountable, theology) Free and undeserved favour, especially of God; unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification, or for resisting sin.
   When she sang in the kirk, folk have told me that they had a foretaste of the musick of the New Jerusalem, and when she came in by the village of Caulds old men stottered to their doors to look at her. Moreover, from her earliest days the bairn had some glimmerings of grace. 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
8. An act or decree of the governing body of an English university.

verb

1. (transitive) To adorn; to decorate; to embellish and dignify.
   He graced the room with his presence.
   He graced the room by simply being there.
   His portrait graced a landing on the stairway.
2. (transitive) To dignify or raise by an act of favour; to honour.
3. (transitive) To supply with heavenly grace.
4. (transitive, music) To add grace notes, cadenzas, etc., to.
   For D and E, the G and A fingers are generally used for gracing, though E is sometimes more conveniently graced by F#. 1987, L. E. McCullough, The Complete Irish Tin Whistle Tutor (New & Revised), page 22