pacific

comparative more pacific · superlative most pacific · alternative pacifick

1. Calm, peaceful.

   1 more example

   The policeman on the beat moved up the avenue impressively. […] Trying doors as he went, twirling his club with many intricate and artful movements, turning now and then to cast his watchful eye adown the pacific thoroughfare, the officer, with his stalwart form and slight swagger, made a fine picture of a guardian of the peace.

   1906 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “After Twenty Years”, in The Four Million, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co, →OCLC, page 214

   Synonyms: calm, steady, collected, composed, cool-headed, equable, equanimous, equanimitable

2. Preferring peace by nature; avoiding violence.

   "Oh, of course I'm not really in favour of hanging," admitted Mr Carlyle. "Nobody really is. But we go on hanging. Mr Drishna is a dangerous animal who for the sake of pacific animals must cease to exist. […]"

   1914, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados

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   The long-continued hostilities which had for centuries divided the south and the north divisions of the Island of Britain, had been happily terminated by the succession of the pacific James I, to the English crown.

   1822 May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter I, in The Fortunes of Nigel. […], volume I (in English), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 3

   Synonyms: peaceable, peaceful, dovish, nonviolent, anti-bellicist, dovelike, dovish, irenic · Antonyms: bellicose, hawkish, martial, militant, violent

1. The Pacific Ocean.

   The US Air Force plans to bring the Pacific island airfield that launched the atomic bombings of Japan back into commission as it tries to broaden its basing options in the event of any hostilities with China, the service’s top officer in the Pacific says.

   2023 December 22, Brad Lendon, “US Air Force to reclaim Pacific airfield that launched atomic bombings as it looks to counter China”, in CNN, archived from the original on 17 Mar 2026

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   When our last plenary session was held in November of last year the Pacific was threatened with imminent outbreak of war. Since the subsequent beginning of the Japanese campaign of aggression in that ocean, China, in the company of her allies, has become the most important member of the forces fighting on the continent of East Asia.

   1942 [1942 October 22], Chiang Kai-shek, “Endurance, conscientiousness”, in All We Are and All We Have, New York: Chinese News Service, →OCLC, page 45

2. A city in Franklin County, Missouri, United States.

plural Pacifics

1. rail transportA steam locomotive of the 4-6-2 wheel arrangement.

   Britannia's firebox would appear to have derived from those of the Bulleid Pacifics, which it closely resembles.

   1951 April, Stirling Everard, “A Matter of Pedigree”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 273

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   These were the first class of tender locomotives with this wheel arrangement in the world, although there is some doubt as to whether the name "Pacific" was given to the type because New Zealand is in the Pacific Ocean or because some similar engines were built a few months later for the Missouri Pacific Railroad.

   1954 August, J. B. Snell, “The New Zealand Government Railways—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 559

1. not comparableRelated to or located in the Pacific Ocean.

   The US Air Force plans to bring the Pacific island airfield that launched the atomic bombings of Japan back into commission as it tries to broaden its basing options in the event of any hostilities with China, the service’s top officer in the Pacific says.

   2023 December 22, Brad Lendon, “US Air Force to reclaim Pacific airfield that launched atomic bombings as it looks to counter China”, in CNN, archived from the original on 17 Mar 2026