prys

Verb (1)

pry (third-person singular simple present pries, present participle prying, simple past and past participle pried)

1. (intransitive) 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...
2. (figuratively, intransitive) 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...
3. (obsolete, transitive) 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...

Verb (2)

pry (third-person singular simple present pries, present participle prying, simple past and past participle pried)

1. (transitive) 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
2. (figuratively, transitive) Usually followed by out (of): to draw out or get (information, etc.) with effort.

   Synonyms:

   quarry, wring

See all 9 meanings of pry