prog
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɹɒɡ/
ipa: /pɹɑɡ/
homophone: Prague (some accents)
rhymes: -ɒɡ
Forms: form: progs
form: progging
form: progged
form: progged
Etymology: A variant of proke.
Senses: examples: text: To be wise about affares of this life (these fleeting, these empty, these deceitful shadows) is a sorry wisdom; to be wise in purveying for the flesh, is the wisdom of a beast, which is wise enough to prog for its sustenance;
ref: 1716, Isaac Barrow, The Works. Published by John Tillotson, page 26:
text: An old Fox thinks he has given his young Cubs Portion enough, when he has taught them to shift in the World: At first he provides Lambs and Chickens for them; but when once they come to be at the age of discretion, he thinks it enough that he has begot them wit and parts, and leave them to prog for themselves .
ref: 1743, The Pleasures of Matrimony, page 132:
text: Or was it my duty to keep and maintain them, after they were of fufficient bigness to prog for themselves? The birds and beasts take care of their young no longer than till they are able to care for themselves ; and why should man be confin'd to more severe laws in that point than his vassal-creatures?
ref: 1744, Thomas Brown, The Second Volume of the Works of Mr. Thomas Brown: Containing Letters from the Dead to the Living and from the Living to the Dead, together with Dialogues of the Dead, page 316:
text: The most hardy and best qualified to prog for for themselves, are the Chinese; a cross with which breed upon almost any other, may under most circumstances, be prudently recommended; let the breed be what it may, a well-proportioned stock to every farm will most abundantly requite the car, and repay the expence of the necessary food, provided for them.
ref: 1794, Great Britain. Board of Agriculture, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Nottingham, page 135:
glosses: To feed and care for oneself, as opposed to being fed and cared for by someone (like a domesticated animal).
raw_tags: of an animal
examples: text: They abuse what light of Reason they have, rendring it a slave to those brutish powers of life (it ought to direct and rule over ) so as to prog about and fetch in provisions for them.
ref: 1680, An Exposition of Ecclesiastes, Or, The Preacher, page 345:
text: For God knows that is too apt to provide for itself, and to prog and purvey for the satisfaction of its vile desires.
ref: 1737, Robert South, Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions, page 458:
text: And when it is so apparent that the main of our Design is to prog for our Flesh , and make a comfortable Provision for a few Years Ease and Luxury, who would think that we believed ourselves to be immortal Spirits that must live for ever in an inconceivable Happiness or Misery?
ref: 1747, John Scott ·, The Christian Life, page 30:
text: First of all let me admonish you , not to be too hasty to prog for Riches. For Solomon sayth': He that hastenth to be rich, shall not be innocent , but Poverty Poverty shall come upon him.
ref: 1752, Letters, To all Lovers of Virtue and Taste, page 614:
glosses: To seek food and wealth as opposed to pursuing spiritual goals.
examples: text: a perfect artist in progging for money
ref: 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):
text: And yet this most mild, though withal dreadful and inviolable Prerogative of Christs Diadem, Excommunication servs for nothing with them, but to prog and pander for Fees, or to display their Pride, and sharpen their Revenge, debarring Men the protection of the Law; and I remember not whether in some Cases it breave not Men all right to their worldly Goods and Inheritances, besides the denial of Christian burial.
ref: 1698, John Milton, Miltons Historical and Political Works, page 271:
text: they shut me up in a by Place of their Appartment, and, as they us'd to prog for themselves, I us'd also to watch the Opportunity of their Bathing, or any other Business that call'd 'em both side; then I fed like a Farmer, mightily pleas'd, that now I was come to a Diet that suited naturally to my Appetite.
ref: 1711, Lucian (of Samosata.), The Works of Lucian, page 137:
text: That whatever Zeal be endeavour'd to shew, for the King, his Joy terminated in himself; may too justly be retorted upon himself, and that whatever Zeal he may pretend in Broaching Arbitrary Maxims, and in Slandering some Persons of the first Rank, his only Aim is thereby to prog for an Offal of the King's Bounty.
ref: 1724, Mr. Boyer, The Political State of Great Britain - Volume 27, page 282:
text: I have been endeavouring to prog for you.
ref: 1788, Edmund Burke, Speech in the Impeachment of Warren Hastings:
glosses: To seek food, goods, or money by low arts, such as begging, trickery, or abuse of power.
examples: text: And hence we may take it for granted, there will always be some lavish People in every Prince's Court, where a Royal Table is kept, to waste and confound; to prog for themselyes, and regale their Friends, and to destroy more in one Day, by their clandestine Tricks, than would ine half the CROWN'D HEADS in Europe. But imbeziling of Belly-Timber, they think is no such extraordinary Offence in a Palace, tithout any Regard all the While to Conscience and Honour, or the King they cheat.
ref: 1708, Daniel Defoe, The Union-Proverb: Viz. If Skiddaw Has a Cap, Scruffell Wots full well of That, page 302:
text: Their Servants have their Meat reach'd them by their Masters, which they eat behind their Backs. They bring twice as much WIne as their Masters need, and drink the Remainder themselves. They seize on what is left after Dinner. And their Ladies each of them carry a Napkin to prog for dry'd Sweet-meats or Fruits.
ref: 1711, anonymous author, Atlas Geographus: Or, A Compleat System of Geography, page 220:
text: What less than fool is man to prog and plot, And lavish out the cream of all his care, To gain poor seeming goods, which, being got, Make firm possession but a thoroughfare;
ref: 1780, Francis Quarles, Quarles' Emblems, divine and moral, page 44:
glosses: To steal; to rob; to filch.
examples: text: An' on his royal paunches thole A dwarf to prog him wi' a pole; While he wad shaw his fangs, an' rage Wi' bootless wrangling in his cage.
ref: 1797, Allan Ramsay ·, A collection of Scots proverbs, page 119:
glosses: To prick; to goad; to progue.