practise
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: prăkʹtĭs
ipa: /ˈpɹæktɪs/
rhymes: -æktɪs
Forms: form: practises
form: practising
form: practised
form: practised
form: practice
Etymology: From Middle English practizen, a variant of practisen, from Middle French pratiser, practiser, from Medieval Latin practizo, from Late Latin practico (“to do, perform, execute, propose, practise, exercise, be conversant with, contrive, conspire, etc.”), from prāctica (“practical affairs", "business”), from Ancient Greek πρᾱκτική (prāktikḗ), from πρᾱκτικός (prāktikós, “practical”), from πρᾱ́σσειν (prā́ssein, “to do”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per(h₂)- (“to go over, cross”).
Senses: examples: text: You should practise playing piano every day.
glosses: To repeat (an activity) as a way of improving one's skill in that activity.
examples: text: If you want to speak French well, you need to practise.
glosses: To repeat an activity in this way.
examples: text: They gather to practise religion every Saturday.
text: Hydromancy was extensively practised by the Egyptian priests and sorcerers[.]
ref: 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 39:
text: He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record. With this biological framework in place, Corning endeavors to show that the capitalist system as currently practiced in the United States and elsewhere is manifestly unfair.
ref: 2012 March-April, John T. Jost, “Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)?”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 13 Feb 2012, page 162:
glosses: To perform or observe in an habitual fashion.
examples: text: She practised law for forty years before retiring.
glosses: To pursue (a career, especially law, fine art or medicine).
glosses: To conspire.
examples: text: Aught but Talbot's shadow whereon to practise your severity.
ref: 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:
text: As this advice ye practise or neglect.
ref: 1715–1720, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book VII”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:
glosses: To put into practice; to carry out; to act upon; to commit; to execute; to do.
examples: text: In malice to this good knight's wife, I practised Ubaldo and Ricardo to corrupt her.
ref: 1629, Philip Massinger, Nathan Field, The Picture:
glosses: To make use of; to employ.
examples: text: In church they are taught to love God; after church they are practised to love their neighbour.
ref: 1828, Walter Savage Landor, “Lord Brooke and Sir Philip Sidney”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To teach or accustom by practice; to train.
Derived terms: practisable
practiseable
practisant
practised
practise what one preaches
practising
unpractised
Related terms: practic
practicable
practical
practice
practitioner