lace

Etymology 1

From Middle English lace, laace, las, from Old French las, from Vulgar Latin *laceum, based on Latin laqueus. Doublet of lasso.

noun

1. (uncountable) A light fabric containing patterns of holes, usually built up from a single thread. ᵂᵖ
   c. 1620, Francis Bacon, letter of advice to Sir George Villiers Our English dames are much given to the wearing of very fine and costly laces.
   She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher. 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 2, in The Mirror and the Lamp
2. (countable) A cord or ribbon passed through eyelets in a shoe or garment, pulled tight and tied to fasten the shoe or garment firmly. ᵂᵖ
   your laces are untied, do them up!
3. A snare or gin, especially one made of interwoven cords; a net.
4. (slang, obsolete) Spirits added to coffee or another beverage.

Etymology 2

From Middle English lacen, lasen, from Old French lacer, lacier, lasser, lachier, from the noun (see above).

verb

1. (ergative) To fasten (something) with laces.
   When Jenny's stays are newly laced.
2. (transitive) To interweave items.
   to lace one's fingers together
   The Gond […] picked up a trail of the Karela, the vine that bears the bitter wild gourd, and laced it to and fro across the temple door.
3. (transitive) To interweave the spokes of a bicycle wheel.
4. (transitive) To beat; to lash; to make stripes on.
5. (transitive) To adorn with narrow strips or braids of some decorative material.
   cloth laced with silver
6. (transitive, figurative) To intersperse or diversify with something.
   The throne speech opening the New Democrat government’s second legislative session Dec. 2 was a modest document featuring caution and pragmatism laced with a few tidbits of democratic socialism. 1982-12-11, Frances Russell, “Economic performance buoys Pawley’s position”, in The Vancouver Sun (The Weekend Sun), Vancouver, BC, page A6
7. (transitive) To add alcohol, poison, a drug or anything else potentially harmful to (food or drink).