pry

¹ American  

[prahy] / praɪ /

verb (used without object)

pried, prying

1. to inquire impertinently or unnecessarily into something.

   to pry into the personal affairs of others.

2. to look closely or curiously; peer; peep.

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noun

• pries
  plural

1. an impertinently inquisitive person.

2. an act of prying.

pry ² American  

[prahy] / praɪ /

verb (used with object)

pried, prying

1. to move, raise, or open by leverage.

2. to get, separate, or ferret out with difficulty.

   to pry a secret out of someone;

   We finally pried them away from the TV.

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noun

• pries
  plural

1. a tool, as a crowbar, for raising, moving, or opening something by leverage.

2. the leverage exerted.

pry ¹ British  

/ praɪ /

verb

1. to make an impertinent or uninvited inquiry (about a private matter, topic, etc)

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noun

1. the act of prying

2. a person who pries

pry ² British  

/ praɪ /

verb

1. to force open by levering

2. to extract or obtain with difficulty

   they had to pry the news out of him

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• pries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of pry¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English prien, “look about, peep”; further origin unknown

Origin of pry²

First recorded in 1800–10; back formation from prize ³, taken as a plural noun or 3rd person singular verb

Explanation

To pry is to try and find something out that is none of your business. We all hate people who pry, sticking their nose into our personal affairs, and it is an annoying and disrespectful habit. We are taught as children to ask questions, but sometimes those questions are used to pry, or peek into someone's private business. A nosy person will peek into some else's life the same way one might use a crowbar to pry open a crate (though — alert! — that pry has a different origin). Our word is thought to come from a word related to the Old English verb beprīwan, "to wink," which evolved into the Middle English prie, "to peer in," which gives us today's meaning.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pry pries pried prying

When the internet helped pry open the door on prices decades ago, all that information initially gave shoppers an empowering edge.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026

Still, it’s tough to pry focus away from the powerful bull market in stocks.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 1, 2026

But it was not Ratchford's business to pry.

From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026

As the writer and the actor spend time together, and the narrator tries to pry open some small window into M’s psyche, the process of gathering material is constantly being thwarted by M’s casual instructability.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026

I pry my eyes open and squint up at Charlie, who has something so close to my face, I can’t see what it is.

From "Isaiah Dunn Is My Hero" by Kelly J. Baptist

Spot gold pries are down 5% at $4,616 a troy ounce while silver is down 7.8% at $78.18 an ounce.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 2, 2026

Used by emergency personnel after serious car crashes, the hydraulic tool pries open or cuts through wreckage to rescue someone inside.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2024

Concerned, she visits a doctor, and when the specialist pries the welt open, hundreds of small spiders crawl out.

From National Geographic ● Jan. 12, 2024

U.S. oil and gas production, however, is on track to reach record highs in 2023 and 2024 due in part to rising oil pries.

From Reuters ● Sep. 18, 2023

“Pry up the floorboards,” orders Volkheimer, but after Neumann Two pries up several and peers down, it’s clear that the only thing under the boards is decades-old horsehair for insulation.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

In 1947, after reports of strong odors were reported, a huge crowd on the street watched as police and city officials pried their way inside to look for the brothers’ bodies.

From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026

It was precisely the formula that Cohen envisioned when he finally pried Stearns out of Milwaukee: the creativity and ingenuity of Moneyball, only with actual money at their disposal.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026

When the packages arrived, I pried open a pack and popped the top mint into my mouth, despite my wife’s admonition, “Are you insane?”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026

Gilbert’s book has pried open a feminist door that felt long slammed shut.

From Slate ● May 12, 2025

It was Mack who pried open that crate, Mack who bought me, and Mack who raised me like a human baby.

From "The One and Only Ivan" by Katherine Applegate

Why Mr. Cabello insisted on keeping prying international eyes away from that building in La Guaira is a question that demands an answer.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026

"The deportation machine has kind of turned more surgical, so to speak. There's less activity in the cities where there's a lot more prying eyes," Budiandri said.

From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network: it creates a secure private tunnel over public networks, such as the internet, to shield your online activity from prying eyes.

From Salon ● Jun. 2, 2026

But will prying eyes across the interwebs ever learn the whole story?

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2026

They seem to view such questions as prying or boastful, but to me they're perfectly normal.

From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris

Related Words

• extract
• pull
• wrest