pry
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English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /pɹaɪ/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -aɪ
Etymology 1
[edit]The verb is inherited from Middle English prien, pryen (“to look closely, peer into, pry, spy”) [and other forms],[1] from Old English *prīwan, *prēowian (“to look narrowly, to squint at”), attested by Old English beprīwan, beprēwan (“to wink”); further etymology unknown,[2] but probably akin to Old English *prēowot (“closing of the eyes”), attested only in combination – compare prēowthwīl (“blink or twinkling of an eye, moment”), princ (“a wink”): see prink.
The noun is derived from the verb.[3]
Verb
[edit]pry (third-person singular simple present pries, present participle prying, simple past and past participle pried)
- (intransitive)
- To peer closely and curiously, especially at something closed or not public.
- 1599 (first performance), [Thomas Dekker, Henry Chettle, William Houghton], The Pleasant Comodie of Patient Grissill. […], London: […] Henry Rocket, […], published 1603; republished Erlangen, Bavaria: […] Fr. Junge (Junge & Sohn), 1893, →OCLC, page 11, lines 293–294:
- [W]omen haue eagles eyes, / To prie euen to the heart, and why not you?
- 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 158–161:
- […] to elude, thus wrapt in miſt / Of midnight vapor glide obſcure, and prie / In every Buſh and brake, where hap may finde / The Serpent ſleeping, […]
- 1815, William Wordsworth, “Canto First”, in The White Doe of Rylstone; or The Fate of the Nortons. A Poem, London: […] [James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], →OCLC, page 19:
- And choice of studious friends had he / Of Bolton's dear fraternity: / […] / [I]n their cells with him did pry / For other lore,—through strong desire / Searching the earth with chemic fire: […]
- (figuratively) To inquire into something that does not concern one; to be nosy; to snoop.
- 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 122, column 1:
- Watch thou, and wake when others be aſleepe, / To prie into the ſecrets of the State, […]
- 1908, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, “Possibilities of a Pleasant Outing”, in A Room with a View, London: Edward Arnold, →OCLC, part I, page 73:
- We literary hacks are shameless creatures. I believe there's no secret of the human heart into which we wouldn't pry.
- To peer closely and curiously, especially at something closed or not public.
- (transitive, obsolete) To peer at (something) closely; also, to look into (a matter, etc.) thoroughly.
- 1850, Herman Melville, “Night and Day Gambling in a Man-of-War”, in White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers; London: Richard Bentley, published 1855, →OCLC, page 357:
- The two ship's corporals went among the sailors by the names of Leggs and Pounce; […] Bland, the master-at-arms, ravished with their dexterity in prying out offenders, used to call them his two right hands.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]to peer closely and curiously, especially at something closed or not public
|
to inquire into something that does not concern one; to be nosy
|
Noun
[edit]pry (plural pries)
- An act of prying; a close and curious look.
- Synonym: prying
- 1817 March 3, John Keats, “[Poems.] To ****”, in Poems, London: […] [Charles Richards] for C[harles] & J[ames] Ollier, […], →OCLC; reprinted in Poems (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, 1927, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 37:
- With those beauties, scarce discern'd, / Kept with such sweet privacy, / That they seldom meet the eye / Of the little loves that fly / Round about with eager pry.
- A person who is very inquisitive or nosy; a busybody, a nosey parker.
- Synonym: (chiefly US) Paul Pry
Related terms
[edit]- Paul Pry (predates sense 2)
Translations
[edit]act of prying; close and curious look
|
Etymology 2
[edit]The noun is probably a back-formation from prise, prize (“tool for levering, lever”), construed as the plural of pry.[4]
The verb is either derived from the noun, or is a back-formation from prise (“to force open with a lever”), construed as pries, the third-person singular present form of pry.[5]
Noun
[edit]pry (plural pries)
Translations
[edit]tool for levering — see also crowbar
Verb
[edit]pry (third-person singular simple present pries, present participle prying, simple past and past participle pried) (transitive)
- To use leverage to open, raise, or widen (something); to prise or prize.
- 1850, Herman Melville, “A Dish of Dunderfunk”, in White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers; London: Richard Bentley, published 1855, →OCLC, page 158:
- "Oh! he's going home to Down East," said another; "so far eastward, you know, shippy, that they have to pry up the sun with a handspike."
- (figuratively) Usually followed by out (of): to draw out or get (information, etc.) with effort.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]to use leverage to open, raise, or widen
|
to draw out or get (information, etc.) with effort
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
References
[edit]- ^ “prīen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- ^ “pry, v.1”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “pry1, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- ^ “† pry, n.3”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2019.
- ^ “pry, n.4”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2020.
- ^ “pry, v.2”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “pry2, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Anagrams
[edit]Yola
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English praien, from Anglo-Norman preier, from Old French proiier, from Latin precor.
Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]pry (simple past pryet)
- to pray
References
[edit]- Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 63
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