pry
/pɹaɪ/
pry verb: to peer closely and curiously, especially at something closed or not public.
Verb (1)
pry (third-person singular simple present pries, present participle prying, simple past and past participle pried)
- To peer closely and curiously, especially at something closed or not public.
- [W]omen haue eagles eyes, / To prie euen to the heart, and why not you?1599 (first performance), [Thomas Dekker, Henry Chettle, William Houghton], The Pleasant Comodie of Patient Grissill. […], London: […] Henry Rocket, […], published 1603; republished Erlangen...
- […] to elude, thus wrapt in miſt / Of midnight vapor glide obſcure, and prie / In every Buſh and brake, where hap may finde / The Serpent ſleeping, […]1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC...
- To inquire into something that does not concern one; to be nosy; to snoop.
- Watch thou, and wake when others be aſleepe, / To prie into the ſecrets of the State, […]1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- We literary hacks are shameless creatures. I believe there's no secret of the human heart into which we wouldn't pry.1908, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, “Possibilities of a Pleasant Outing”, in A Room with a View, London: Edward Arnold, →OCLC, part I, page 73
- To peer at (something) closely; also, to look into (a matter, etc.) thoroughly.
- The two ship's corporals went among the sailors by the names of Leggs and Pounce; […] Bland, the master-at-arms, ravished with their dexterity in prying out offenders, used to call them his two right hands.1850, Herman Melville, “Night and Day Gambling in a Man-of-War”, in White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers; London: Richard Bentley, published...
Noun (1)
pry (plural pries)
- An act of prying; a close and curious look.
- With those beauties, scarce discern'd, / Kept with such sweet privacy, / That they seldom meet the eye / Of the little loves that fly / Round about with eager pry.1817 March 3, John Keats, “[Poems.] To ****”, in Poems, London: […] [Charles Richards] for C[harles] & J[ames] Ollier, […], →OCLC; reprinted in Poems (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel...
- Synonyms:
- prying
- A person who is very inquisitive or nosy; a busybody, a nosey parker.
- Synonyms:
- Paul Pry
Noun (2)
pry (plural pries)
Verb (2)
pry (third-person singular simple present pries, present participle prying, simple past and past participle pried)
- To use leverage to open, raise, or widen (something); to prise or prize.
- "Oh! he's going home to Down East," said another; "so far eastward, you know, shippy, that they have to pry up the sun with a handspike."1850, Herman Melville, “A Dish of Dunderfunk”, in White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers; London: Richard Bentley, published 1855, →OCLC, page 158
- Usually followed by out (of): to draw out or get (information, etc.) with effort.
Proper noun capitalized: Pry
Pry (plural Prys)
- A surname.
pry meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
pry in Tamil
- துருவியறி, வலிந்தாராய்
pry in Urdu
- تجسس کرنا
pry in Malayalam
- ഒളിഞ്ഞുനോക്കുക, വേണ്ടാത്തിടത്ത് ഉറ്റുനോക്കുക, അറിയാൻ ശ്രമിക്കുക
pry in Kannada
- ಹೊಂಚಿನೋಡು, ಇಣಿಕಿ ನೋಡು, ಬೆದಕು, ಇಣುಕಿ ನೋಡು, ಹಣಿಕಿ ನೋಡು, ಹೊಂಚಿ ನೋಡು
More languagesFewer languages
- pry in Persian
- سر و گوش آب دادن sar o guš âb dâdan, کنجکاو konjkâv, فضول fozul
Examples of pry in a sentence
- I don't mean to pry, but could you tell me where you got that scarf?
- to pry into someone's affairs
- And choice of studious friends had he / Of Bolton's dear fraternity: / […] / [I]n their cells with him did pry / For other lore,—through strong desire / Searching the earth with chemic fire: […]1815, William Wordsworth, “Canto First”, in The White Doe of Rylstone; or The Fate of the Nortons. A Poem, London: […] [F]or Longman...
Synonyms of pry
Forms of pry
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | pries |
| present participle | prying |
| past participle | pried |
| past | pried |
| Noun | |
| plural | pries |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Prys |
Origin of pry
The verb is inherited from Middle English prien, pryen (“to look closely, peer into, pry, spy”) [and other forms], from Old English *prīwan, *prēowian (“to look narrowly, to squint at”), attested by Old English beprīwan, beprēwan (“to wink”); further etymology unknown, but probably akin to Old English *prēowot (“closing of the eyes”), attested only in combination – compare prēowthwīl (“blink or twinkling of an eye, moment”), princ (“a wink”): see prink. The noun is derived from the verb.
The noun is probably a back-formation from prise, prize (“tool for levering, lever”), construed as the plural of pry. The verb is either derived from the noun, or is a back-formation from prise (“to force open with a lever”), construed as pries, the third-person singular present form of pry.
* As an Irish surname, spelling variant of Prey, from Ó Préith, probably from na préith (“of the cattle-spoil”) (compare Latin praeda (“plunder, booty”)). * As a German surname, a spelling variant of Prey, from breu (“brew”); see brauen. Comparable to the surname Preyer.
Words formed from pry
Phrases with pry
Words that rhyme with pry
Questions about pry
- What does pry mean?
- Pry means to peer closely and curiously, especially at something closed or not public.
- What is pry in Tamil?
- Pry in Tamil is துருவியறி, வலிந்தாராய். See Pry meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use pry in a sentence?
- I don't mean to pry, but could you tell me where you got that scarf?
- What part of speech is pry?
- Pry can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce pry?
- Pry is pronounced /pɹaɪ/.
- What is the past tense of pry?
- The past tense of pry is pried.
Words near pry in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pry (page history and authors); Pry (page history and authors); pry (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pry (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pry (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pry (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-pry.wav.
Cite this entry: “pry.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pry. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.