prest

/prɛst/

prest is the simple past and past participle of press.

Noun

prest (plural prests)

(rare) A payment of wages in advance
A loan or advance (of money)
- Requiring of the city a prest of six thousand marks.1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret...
A tax or duty
(obsolete) A sum of money paid to a soldier or sailor upon enlistment
A duty in money formerly paid by the sheriff on his account in the exchequer, or for money left or remaining in his hands.
- the same tayles soe hereafter there to be levyed and striken, shalbe delyvered unto everye of the same Sheriffes[…]without prest or other chardge to be sett upon them for the same.1548, King Edward VI, Act 2

prest (comparative more prest, superlative most prest)

(obsolete) Ready; prompt; prepared.
(obsolete) Neat; tidy; proper.
- False knave ready prest,
  All safe is the best1557 February 13 (Gregorian calendar), Thomas Tusser, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, London: […] Richard Tottel, →OCLC; republished London: […] Robert Triphook, […], and William Sancho, […]...
(obsolete) Quick, brisk.
- The fauconer then was prest,
  Came runnynge with a dow,
  And cryed, ‘Stow, stow, stow!’
  But she wold not bow.c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 63, lines 71–74

press (third-person singular simple present presses, present participle pressing, simple past and past participle pressed or prest)

(ambitransitive) To exert weight or force against, to act upon with force or weight; to exert pressure upon.
(transitive) To activate a button or key by exerting a downward or forward force on it, and then releasing it.

Synonyms:

strike, hit, depress
(transitive) To compress, squeeze.
- to press fruit for the purpose of extracting the juice
Synonyms:

thring, thrutch, astringe, compact, telescope, compactify, condense, densitize, pack, mash
(transitive) To clasp, hold in an embrace.
- With tears and ſmiles ſhe took her ſon, and preſs'd / Th' illuſtrious infant to her fragrant breaſt.a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “The Last Parting of Hector and Andromache. From the Sixth Book of the Iliad.”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume IV, London: […] J[acob] and...
Synonyms:

hug
(transitive) To reduce to a particular shape or form by pressure, especially flatten or smooth.
- to press cloth with a clothes-iron
(transitive) To flatten a selected area of fabric using an iron with an up-and-down, not sliding, motion, so as to avoid disturbing adjacent areas.

prest (third-person singular simple present prests, present participle presting, simple past and past participle prested)

(obsolete, transitive) To give as a loan; to lend.
- a greate part of our armie already prested, and in our wages to go forward1550, Edward Hall, Chronicle

Prest (plural Prests)

Noun
plural	prests
Verb
third-person singular present	prests
present participle	presting
past participle	prested
past	prested
Adjective
comparative	more prest
superlative	most prest
Proper noun
plural	Prests

From Middle English prest, from Old French prest, deverbal from prester.

From Middle English prest, borrowed from Old French prester, from Latin praesto, praestare.

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

What does prest mean?: Prest means a payment of wages in advance.
What is prest the simple past and past participle of?: Prest is the simple past and past participle of press.
What part of speech is prest?: Prest can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce prest?: Prest is pronounced /prɛst/.
What is the plural of prest?: The plural of prest is prests.

Adapted from Wiktionary: prest (page history and authors); Prest (page history and authors); press (page history and authors). 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-prest.wav.

Cite this entry: “prest.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prest. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.