see also: Pry
Pronunciation
- IPA: /pɹaɪ/
The verb is inherited from Middle English prien, pryen [and other forms], from Old English *prīwan, *prēowian, attested by Old English beprīwan, beprēwan; further etymology unknown, but probably akin to Old English *prēowot, attested only in combination – compare prēowthwīl, princ: see prink.
The noun is derived from the verb.
Verbpry (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, […]
- 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.
- French: fureter, fouiller, scruter
- German: genau hinsehen, genau nachsehen
- Italian: sbirciare
- Spanish: husmear
- French: s'immiscer
- German: schnüffeln
- Italian: intrudere
- Portuguese: bisbilhotar, xeretar
- Russian: подсма́тривать
- Spanish: entremeter (pronominal), fisgar, fisgonear, hurgar
pry (plural pries)
- An act of prying; a close and curious look.
- Synonyms: 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.
- Synonyms: Paul Pry
- Paul Pry (predates sense 2)
The noun is probably a back-formation from prise, prize, construed as the plural of pry.
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.
Nounpry (plural pries)
- (East Anglia, US) A tool for levering; a crowbar, a lever.
- Synonyms: prise, prize, prybar, pry bar
pry (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.
- German: aufhebeln
- Spanish: hacer palanca, abrir palanqueando, abrir apalacando
Pry
Etymology
- As an Irish - surname, spelling variant of Prey, from Ó Préith.
- As a German - surname, a spelling variant of Prey, from breu; see brauen.
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