march

plural marches

1. A formal, rhythmic way of walking, used especially by soldiers, by bands, and in ceremonies.
2. A journey so walked.
3. A political rally or parade.

   Mr. Nelson covered the Selma-to-Montgomery freedom marches, including Bloody Sunday, on March 7, 1965, when 600 marchers were attacked with billy clubs and tear gas.

   2009 October 21, Dennis Hevesi, “Jack Nelson, Journalist, Dies at 80”, in The New York Times, retrieved 12 Jun 2014

   Synonyms: protest, parade, rally

4. Any song in the genre of music written for marching (see Wikipedia's article on this type of music)
5. Steady forward movement or progression.

   the march of time

   Synonyms: process, advancement, progression

6. The feat of taking all the tricks of a hand.

present singular third person marches · participle present marching · participle past marched · past marched

1. intransitiveTo walk with long, regular strides, as a soldier does.

   The column marching in double file, the instructor commands: […]

   1864, United States War Department, The 1864 Field Artillery Tactics, Stackpole Books, published 2005, →ISBN, page 120

2. transitiveTo cause someone to walk somewhere.

   The old man heaved himself from the chair, seized Jessamy by her pinafore frill and marched her to the house.

   1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 84

3. To go to war; to make military advances.

   The armies drawing constantly nearer to each other, the king advised with his council, whether he should march against the Britons, or sall upon the count of Gharolois.

   1746, Charles Pinot Duclos, The history of Lewis xi. king of France. Transl, page 169

4. figurativelyTo make steady progress.

   1 more example

   Some say history repeats itself, that time is cyclical. Others cling to the notion of progress and change over time. Apparently Nancy Walker marches to a different drummer — marches backwards, that is. Her ideas on art and society seem quaint and odd on the one hand and, on the other, petty and regressive.

   1981 December 27, Wade Nichols, “Victorian Imperialism”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 23, page 5

plural marches

1. archaichistoricaloftenpluralA border region, especially one originally set up to defend a boundary.

   Juan's companion was a Romagnole, / But bred within the March of old Ancona[…].

   1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, section IV

   Synonyms: frontier, marchland, borderland

2. historicalA region at a frontier governed by a marquess.

present singular third person marches · participle present marching · participle past marched · past marched

1. intransitiveTo have common borders or frontiers

plural marches

1. obsoleteSmallage.

plural Marches · alternative abbreviation Mar · alternative abbreviation Mar. · alternative abbreviation MAR

1. uncountableusuallyThe third month of the Gregorian calendar, following February and preceding April, containing the northward equinox.

   Holonyms: calendar year; year

   1 more example

   And on March 21, Virginia passed a law banning colorants from school food, effective July 1, 2027.

   2025 March 29, Kristen Rogers, “Over half of US states are trying to eliminate food dyes. Here’s what you can do now”, in CNN

   Synonyms: Third Month

2. uncountableusuallyA surname from Middle English for someone born in March, or for someone living near a boundary (marche).
3. uncommonuncountableusuallyA male given name from English.

   “Kendall told me about a man named March Flack. A radio actor who disappeared years ago. I assumed that was here.”

   2001, John Dunning, Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime: A Novel, →ISBN, page 82

   3 more examples

   Alexander Garden Jr., the long-serving rector of South Carolina's St. Thomas parish, twice advertised in 1747 to offer a reward for the return of an enslaved Igbo man named March, who had run away from the parsonage house.

   2012, Travis Glasson, Mastering Christianity: Missionary Anglicanism and Slavery, →ISBN

   However, Patty seems to have been the only one of more than seventy slaves at Ossabaw Island who did not perform some duty on the plantation, which is evidence that elderly and disabled slaves were indeed put to work despite their impairments. The overseer's journals for Kollock's Ossabaw Island plantation allow us to trace the career of one disabled slave, a blind man named March, to demonstrate the utility of slaves with debilities. At the time Kollack was consolidating his assets on his new plantation, March was rated to be a "quarter hand," with no indication of what jobs he was expected to perform at that time. In the 1850 and 1851 journals, March is not included in tallies of cotton pickings by weight, unlike most other male slaves [...]

   2013, Dea H. Boster, African American Slavery and Disability: Bodies, Property and Power, →ISBN

   What suited her much better was a young man named March whom she had met at a friend's wedding in London. Both Linda and March Hancock had grown up far east of Eden, [...] March Hancock was born in 1944 [...]

   2016, Mary V. T. Cattan, Pilgrimage of Awakening: The Extraordinary Lives of Murray and Mary Rogers, →ISBN, page 157

4. uncountableusuallyA locality in the Cabonne council area, central New South Wales, Australia.
5. uncountableusuallyA market town and civil parish with a town council in Fenland district, Cambridgeshire, England (OS grid ref TL4196).
6. uncountableusuallyA municipality near Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
7. uncountableusuallyAn unincorporated community in Marshall County, Minnesota, United States.
8. uncountableusuallyAn unincorporated community in Dallas County, Missouri, United States, named after the month.