præfer

Verb

prefer (third-person singular simple present prefers, present participle preferring, simple past and past participle preferred)

1. (transitive) To be in the habit of choosing something rather than something else; to favor; to like better.
   • I prefer tea to coffee.

   Synonyms:

   fain, favor, forechoose

   Antonyms:

   disprefer

2. (dated, transitive) To advance, promote (someone or something).
   • So ſhall you haue a ſhorter iourney to your deſires, by the meanes I ſhall then haue to preferre them. And the impediment moſt profitably remoued, without the which there were no expectation of our proſperitie.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...

   Synonyms:

   elevate, raise, uplift, advance, aggrandize, dignify, ennoble, exalt, honor, nobilitate

3. (transitive) To present or submit (something) to an authority (now usually in "to prefer charges").
   • […], let him go,
     And preſently preferre his ſuite to Cæſar.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
4. (obsolete, transitive) To put forward for acceptance; to introduce, recommend (to).
   • one Master David Hume, who making some use of his purse, gave him Letters to his friends in Scotland to preferre him to King Iames.1630, John Smith, chapter 1, in The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captaine Iohn Smith, London: Thomas Slater, page 2