practise

Verb

practise (third-person singular simple present practises, present participle practising, simple past and past participle practised)

1. (transitive) To repeat (an activity) as a way of improving one's skill in that activity.
   • You should practise playing piano every day.
   • The legislation also seeks to outlaw “balconing”, the practice of jumping into a swimming pool from a hotel balcony that kills several people each year. In future, hotels will have to evict anyone practising balconing or encouraging others to do so.2020 January 17, Stephen Burgen, “Balearic islands pass bill targeting boozy Brits abroad”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 20 Mar 2020
2. (intransitive) To repeat an activity in this way.
   • If you want to speak French well, you need to practise.
3. (transitive) To perform or observe in an habitual fashion.
   • They gather to practise religion every Saturday.
   • Hydromancy was extensively practised by the Egyptian priests and sorcerers[.]1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 39
4. (transitive) To pursue (a career, especially law, fine art or medicine).
   • She practised law for forty years before retiring.
5. (intransitive, obsolete) To conspire.
6. To put into practice; to carry out; to act upon; to commit; to execute; to do.
   • Aught but Talbot's shadow whereon to practise your severity.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]...
   • As this advice ye practise or neglect.1715–1720, Homer, “Book VII”, in Alexander Pope, transl., The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC
7. To make use of; to employ.
   • In malice to this good knight's wife, I practised Ubaldo and Ricardo to corrupt her.1629, Philip Massinger, Nathan Field, The Picture
8. To teach or accustom by practice; to train.
   • In church they are taught to love God; after church they are practised to love their neighbour.1828, Walter Savage Landor, “Lord Brooke and Sir Philip Sidney”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC