pry
1- to inquire impertinently or unnecessarily into something: to pry into the personal affairs of others.
- to look closely or curiously; peer; peep.
- an impertinently inquisitive person.
- an act of prying.
Origin of pry
1pry
2- to move, raise, or open by leverage.
- to get, separate, or ferret out with difficulty: to pry a secret out of someone; We finally pried them away from the TV.
- a tool, as a crowbar, for raising, moving, or opening something by leverage.
- the leverage exerted.
Origin of pry
2Related Words for pry
poke, wrest, pull, extract, stare, peek, search, tap, gape, snoop, spy, inquire, hunt, intrude, meddle, investigate, gaze, nose, peer, peepExamples from the Web for pry
Contemporary Examples of pry
Knapp hopes she can pry open some of those doors for people.
Others want to pry it out and have two votes, one on government funding and one on the Syria dough.
Among them were the persistent efforts of a single congressman to pry out of the Pentagon the true costs of running Guantanamo.
Congress Cooperates, Obama Pushes Hard, and Closing Gitmo Has a ChanceDaniel Klaidman
December 12, 2013
Andrew lifts the roof of the first house and his dad uses a small metal hook to pry the first wall of honeycombs out of the hive.
These other benign interests are being used to pry open the door for all of these other uses.
Historical Examples of pry
"Just held him up to pry into his private affairs," she put it bluntly to herself.
Good IndianB. M. Bower
(Aloud) I don't mean, my good girl, to pry into your family affairs.
Tales And Novels, Volume 8 (of 10)Maria Edgeworth
Young people are entitled to their own privacy; I don't want to pry.
Alice AdamsBooth Tarkington
As to Mrs. Betts's former history, no one had the smallest right to pry into it.
The Coryston FamilyMrs. Humphry Ward
It was one thing to pry into a man's secret; another, to help him escape from it!
Salted With FireGeorge MacDonald
pry
1- (intr often foll by into) to make an impertinent or uninvited inquiry (about a private matter, topic, etc)
- the act of prying
- a person who pries
Word Origin for pry
pry
2- to force open by levering
- US and Canadian to extract or obtain with difficultythey had to pry the news out of him
Word Origin for pry
Word Origin and History for pry
"look inquisitively," c.1300, from prien "to peer in," of unknown origin, perhaps related to late Old English bepriwan "to wink." Related: Pried; prying. As a noun, "act of prying," from 1750; meaning "inquisitive person" is from 1845.
"raise by force," 1823, from a noun meaning "instrument for prying, crowbar;" alteration of prize (as though it were a plural) in obsolete sense of "lever" (c.1300), from Old French prise "a taking hold, grasp" (see prize (n.2)).