pry

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See also: PRY, Pry, and prý

English

WOTD – 26 August 2021

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /pɹaɪ/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪ

Etymology 1

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

pry (third-person singular simple present pries, present participle prying, simple past and past participle pried)

  1. (intransitive)
    1. To peer closely and curiously, especially at something closed or not public.
    2. (figuratively) To inquire into something that does not concern one; to be nosy; to snoop.
  2. (transitive, obsolete) To peer at (something) closely; also, to look into (a matter, etc.) thoroughly.
Conjugation
Conjugation of pry
infinitive (to) pry
present tense past tense
1st-person singular pry pried
2nd-person singular
3rd-person singular pries
plural pry
subjunctive pry pried
imperative pry —
participles prying pried
Derived terms
Translations

Noun

pry (plural pries)

  1. 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.
  2. A person who is very inquisitive or nosy; a busybody, a nosey parker.
    Synonym: (chiefly US) Paul Pry
Translations

Etymology 2

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

pry (plural pries)

  1. (East Anglia, US) A tool for levering; a crowbar, a lever.
    Synonyms: (both chiefly historical) prise, prize, prybar, pry bar
Translations

Verb

pry (third-person singular simple present pries, present participle prying, simple past and past participle pried) (transitive)

  1. To use leverage to open, raise, or widen (something); to prise or prize.
  2. (figuratively) Usually followed by out (of): to draw out or get (information, etc.) with effort.
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

References

  1. ^ “prīen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “pry, v.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “pry1, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ “† pry, n.3”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2019.
  4. ^ “pry, n.4”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020.
  5. ^ “pry, v.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “pry2, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

Yola

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English preien, from Anglo-Norman preier, from Old French proiier, from Vulgar Latin *precō.

Verb

pry (simple past pryet)

  1. to pray

References

  • 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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