parry
/ˈpæɹ.i/
parry verb: to avoid, deflect, or ward off (an attack, a blow, an argument, etc.).
Verb
parry (third-person singular simple present parries, present participle parrying, simple past and past participle parried)
- To avoid, deflect, or ward off (an attack, a blow, an argument, etc.).
- One had to be on one's guard when thus confronted and, in the course of my numerous meetings with him, I had on occasion to exercise all my wits and be prepared at a moment's notice to parry a very awkward question, to which I would much rather have given a considered reply.1944 March and April, Chas. S. Lake, “Some C.M.Es. I Have Known: VIII—Sir H. N. Gresley”, in Railway Magazine, page 74
- Wojciech Szczesny was then called into action twice in a minute to parry fierce drives from Djebbour and Torossidis as Arsenal's back four looked all at sea.2011 September 28, Tom Rostance, “Arsenal 2 - 1 Olympiakos”, in BBC Sport
Noun
parry (plural parries)
- A defensive or deflective action; an act of parrying.
- A simple defensive action designed to deflect an attack, performed with the forte of the blade.
- A defensive move intended to change the direction of an incoming strike to make it miss its intended target, rather than block and absorb it; and typically performed with an open hand in a downward or sideways slapping motion.
Proper noun capitalized: Parry
IPA/ˈpæɹi/
Parry
- A surname from Welsh.
- A unisex given name.
- A hamlet in the Rural Municipality of Caledonia, No. 99, Saskatchewan, Canada.
parry meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
parry in Hindi
- पैरी करना
parry in Tamil
- தவிர், விலகு, நழுவு, தடு, தற்காப்பு நடவடிக்கை அல்லது ஆட்டம்
parry in Marathi
- पॅरी करण्यासाठी, पॅरी करणे, पॅरी करायला
parry in Urdu
- بچانا, بچے رہنا
More languagesFewer languages
- parry in Bengali
- প্যারি করা, প্যারি করতে
- parry in Telugu
- పార్రీకి
- parry in Malayalam
- തടുക്കുക, തട്ടിത്തെറിപ്പിക്കുക, വിലക്കുക, അകറ്റിനിർത്തുക
- parry in Kannada
- ತಪ್ಪಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳು, ನುಣುಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳು
- parry in Punjabi
- ਪੈਰੀ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ, ਪੈਰਰੀ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ, ਪੈਰੀ ਕਰਨਾ
- parry in Gujarati
- પેર્રી કરવા માટે, પેરી કરવા માટે
- parry in Odia
- ପାର୍ରି କରିବା
- parry in Nepali
- पार्री गर्न
- parry in Tagalog
- salag
- parry in Arabic
- نَاكَفَ nākafa
Examples of parry in a sentence
- Pierre was a master swordsman, and could parry the thrusts of lesser men with barely a thought.
- Just when he thought that the cross-examination was over and he'd parried the questions successfully, one of the lawyers stood up and threw a left hook that left him spluttering.
- The fencers lunged and parried their way to a Western Canadian Intervarsity Athletic Union championship.
Synonyms of parry
Forms of parry
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | parries |
| present participle | parrying |
| past participle | parried |
| past | parried |
| alternative form | parree |
| Noun | |
| plural | parries |
Origin of parry
From earlier parree, from Middle English *parree, *paree, from Old French paree (“preparation, ceremony, parade”), from Medieval Latin parāta (“preparation, parade”), from parāre (“to ward off, guard, defend, prepare, get ready”). More at pare. The English verb is taken from the noun. Doublet of parade. Alternative etymology derives the verb parry from French parez, the imperative form of parer (“to fend off”), ultimately from the Medieval Latin parāre. See above.
Anglicised from Welsh ap Harri, "son of Henry".
Words formed from parry
Words that rhyme with parry
5 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about parry
- What does parry mean?
- Parry means to avoid, deflect, or ward off (an attack, a blow, an argument, etc.).
- What is parry in Hindi?
- Parry in Hindi is पैरी करना. See Parry meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is parry?
- Parry can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce parry?
- Parry is pronounced /ˈpæɹ.i/.
- What is the past tense of parry?
- The past tense of parry is parried.
Words near parry in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: parry (page history and authors); Parry (page history and authors); parry (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); parry (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); parry (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); parry (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); parry (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); parry (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); parry (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); parry (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); parry (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); parry (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); parry (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); parry (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “parry.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/parry. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.