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It was a map showing every detail of the Hogwarts castle and grounds. But the truly remarkable thing was the tiny ink dots moving around it, each labelled with a name in minuscule writing. Astounded, Harry bent over it. A labelled dot in the top left corner showed that Professor Dumbledore was pacing his study; the caretaker's cat, Mrs Norris, was prowling the second floor, and Peeves the poltergeist was currently bouncing around the trophy room.

I don't know what "pacing his study" means here. I looked up the word 'pace', but found none of them seem to fit.

v.t.

  1. to set or regulate the pace for, as in racing.

  2. to traverse with slow, regular steps.

  3. to measure by paces.

  4. to train to a certain pace: to pace a horse.

  5. (of a horse) to run (a distance) at a pace.

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A "study" is a room used for writing, reading books, or other academic work. "Pace" here means to walk in a regular and consistent fashion. Cambridge Dictionary defines it as:

to walk with regular steps in one direction and then back again, usually because you are worried or nervous
He paced the room nervously.

So basically this sentence tells you that Professor Dumbledore is walking around in the room.

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    That is, definition 9. from the list in the question: "to traverse [travel across, move back and forth] with slow, regular steps".
    – Sydney
    Commented Nov 20, 2018 at 2:55
  • 1
    Oh! So, 'study' is a room then! That makes sense. Thank you!
    – dan
    Commented Nov 20, 2018 at 3:04
  • @dan A study is 书房
    – Eddie Kal
    Commented Nov 20, 2018 at 3:31
  • @EddieKal oh, yeah! You know Chinese. Cool!
    – dan
    Commented Nov 20, 2018 at 3:37

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