palestra
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of palestra
1375–1425; late Middle English palestre < Latin palaestra a wrestling school, place of exercise < Greek palaístra, equivalent to palais-, variant stem of palaíein to wrestle + -tra feminine noun suffix of place
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Afterward I challenged him to the palestra; and he wrestled and closed with me several times alone; I fancied that I might succeed in this way.
From The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume I (of X) - Greece by Halsey, Francis W. (Francis Whiting)
By gymnastics the Greeks meant the physical training in the palestra, an open stretch of ground on the outskirts of the city.
From Early European History by Webster, Hutton
For many things there be, which we must conceit and apprehend, as though we had had to do with an antagonist at the palestra.
From Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome
The statue represents an athlete rubbing his arm with a flesh scraper to remove the oil and sand of the palestra, or exercising ground.
From Early European History by Webster, Hutton
But when we leave the child "free as a man" in the palestra of his own intelligence, his type changes entirely.
From Spontaneous Activity in Education by Montessori, Maria
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
