habitual or customary performance; operation: office practice.
habit; custom: It is not the practice here for men to wear long hair.
repeated performance or systematic exercise for the purpose of acquiring skill or proficiency: Practice makes perfect.
condition arrived at by experience or exercise: She refused to play the piano, because she was out of practice.
the action or process of performing or doing something: to put a scheme into practice; the shameful practices of a blackmailer.
the exercise or pursuit of a profession or occupation, especially law or medicine: She plans to set up practice in her hometown.
the business of a professional person: The doctor wanted his daughter to take over his practice when he retired.
Law. the established method of conducting legal proceedings.
Archaic. plotting; intrigue; trickery.
Usually practices.Archaic. intrigues; plots.
verb (used with object),prac·ticed,prac·tic·ing.
to perform or do habitually or usually: to practice a strict regimen.
to follow or observe habitually or customarily: to practice one's religion.
to exercise or pursue as a profession, art, or occupation: to practice law.
to perform or do repeatedly in order to acquire skill or proficiency: to practice the violin.
to train or drill (a person, animal, etc.) in something in order to give proficiency.
verb (used without object),prac·ticed,prac·tic·ing.
to do something habitually or as a practice.
to pursue a profession, especially law or medicine.
to exercise oneself by repeated performance in order to acquire skill: to practice at shooting.
Archaic. to plot or conspire.
Also British, prac·tise(for defs 11–19).
Origin of practice
1375–1425; (v.) late Middle Englishpractisen, practizen (< Middle Frenchpra(c)tiser) < Medieval Latinprāctizāre, alteration of prācticāre, derivative of prāctica practical work < Greekprāktikḗ noun use of feminine of prāktikóspractic; see -ize; (noun) late Middle English, derivative of the v.
Related formsprac·tic·er, nounmis·prac·tice, noun, verb,mis·prac·ticed,mis·prac·tic·ing.non·prac·tice, nounout·prac·tice, verb (used with object),out·prac·ticed,out·prac·tic·ing.o·ver·prac·tice, verb (used with object),o·ver·prac·ticed,o·ver·prac·tic·ing.pre·prac·tice, verb,pre·prac·ticed,pre·prac·tic·ing.re·prac·tice, verb (used with object),re·prac·ticed,re·prac·tic·ing.
1620s in reference to professions; from 1906 in reference to religions; present participle adjective from practice (v.).
practice
v.
c.1400, "to do, act;" early 15c., "to follow or employ; to carry on a profession," especially medicine, from Old French pratiser, practiser "to practice," alteration of practiquer, from Medieval Latin practicare "to do, perform, practice," from Late Latin practicus "practical," from Greek praktikos "practical" (see practical).
From early 15c. as "to perform repeatedly to acquire skill, to learn by repeated performance;" mid-15c. as "to perform, to work at, exercise." Related: Practiced; practicing.
practice
n.
early 15c., practise, "practical application," originally especially of medicine but also alchemy, education, etc.; from Old French pratiser, from Medieval Latin practicare (see practice (v.)). From early 15c. often assimilated in spelling to nouns in -ice. Also as practic, which survived in parallel into 19c.
