Word.ws English Dictionary

purprise

/pə(ɹ)ˈpɹaɪz/

purprise noun: an enclosed space, such as the land within the borders of a manor.

Noun

purprise (plural purprises)

  1. (obsolete) An enclosed space, such as the land within the borders of a manor.
    • The place of justice is an hallowed place ; and therefore , not only the bench , but the foot – pace and precincts , and purprise thereof , ought to be preserved without scandal and corruption1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Judicature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC

Forms of purprise

pluralpurprises

Origin of purprise

From Old French porpris, from porprendre (“to take away entirely”); por- (“for”) + prendre (“to take”).

Questions about purprise

What does purprise mean?
Purprise means an enclosed space, such as the land within the borders of a manor.
What part of speech is purprise?
Purprise is a noun.
How do you pronounce purprise?
Purprise is pronounced /pə(ɹ)ˈpɹaɪz/.
What is the plural of purprise?
The plural of purprise is purprises.

Words near purprise in the dictionary

  1. purposivists
  2. purposivity
  3. purpre
  4. purpresture
  5. purprestures
  6. purprise
  7. purprises
  8. purpronin
  9. purpura
  10. purpura rheumatica
  11. purpuraceous

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: purprise (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:

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