prise

[ prahyz ]
See synonyms for prise on Thesaurus.com
verb (used with object), nounprised, pris·ing,

Words that may be confused with prise

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use prise in a sentence

  • The door was prised open by the editor of The American Prospect, Michael Tomasky, and we all spilled out, still furiously bonding.

    D.C. Diary | Tina Brown | January 18, 2009 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • Shouldn't be s'prised if the feller who introduced it and made a fight for it would stand mighty well, back home.

    Scattergood Baines | Clarence Budington Kelland
  • Tell ye, 'f the Old Boy himself sh'd ride up alongside, shouldn't be a mite s'prised to see him.

    Overland | John William De Forest
  • Then without much difficulty they prised up one of the thick planks with which the hut was roofed.

    Condemned as a Nihilist | George Alfred Henty
  • He said Cap'n Baxter had failed dreadful in the last week, and that he wouldn't be s'prised if he dropped off most any time.

    Cap'n Eri | Joseph Crosby Lincoln
  • "At last," he was chuckling, as he rubbed his hands together, and gently prised open that curious box of his.

    The Great Airship. | F. S. Brereton

British Dictionary definitions for prise

prise

prize

/ (praɪz) /


verb(tr)
  1. to force open by levering

  2. to extract or obtain with difficulty: they had to prise the news out of him

noun
  1. rare, or dialect a tool involving leverage in its use or the leverage so employed

Origin of prise

1
C17: from Old French prise a taking, from prendre to take, from Latin prehendere; see prize 1
  • US and Canadian equivalent: pry

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012