PAIR

Pair

Pairing is a system whereby two members of parliament from opposing political parties may agree to abstain where one member is unable to vote, due to other commitments, illness, travel problems, etc. A party whip will usually allow this only for non-critical votes, often referred to as two-line whips.

The above text is a snippet from Wikipedia: Pair (parliamentary convention)
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pair

Noun

  1. Two similar or identical things taken together; often followed by of.
  2. Two people in a relationship, partnership (especially sexual) or friendship.
  3. Used with binary nouns (often in the plural to indicate multiple instances, since such nouns are plurale tantum)
  4. A couple of working animals attached to work together, as by a yoke.
  5. A poker hand that contains of two cards of identical rank, which cannot also count as a better hand.
  6. A score of zero runs (a duck) in both innings of a two-innings match
  7. A double play, two outs recorded in one play
  8. A doubleheader, two games played on the same day between the same teams
  9. A pair of breasts
  10. The exclusion of one member of a parliamentary party from a vote, if a member of the other party is absent for important personal reasons.
  11. Two members of opposite parties or opinion, as in a parliamentary body, who mutually agree not to vote on a given question, or on issues of a party nature during a specified time.
    There were two pairs on the final vote.
  12. A number of things resembling one another, or belonging together; a set.
  13. In a mechanism, two elements, or bodies, which are so applied to each other as to mutually constrain relative motion; named in accordance with the motion it permits, as in turning pair, sliding pair, twisting pair.

Verb

  1. To group into sets of two.
    The wedding guests were paired boy/girl and groom's party/bride's party.
  1. To bring two (animals, notably dogs) together for mating.
  2. To engage (oneself) with another of opposite opinions not to vote on a particular question or class of questions.
  3. To suit; to fit, as a counterpart.

Verb (etymology 2)

  1. To impair.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: pair
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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