practise
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English practizen, a variant of practisen, from Middle French pratiser, practiser, from Medieval Latin practizo, from Late Latin practico (“to do, perform, execute, propose, practise, exercise, be conversant with, contrive, conspire, etc.”), from prāctica (“practical affairs", "business”), from Ancient Greek πρᾱκτική (prāktikḗ), from πρᾱκτικός (prāktikós, “practical”), from πρᾱ́σσειν (prā́ssein, “to do”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per(h₂)- (“to go over, cross”).
Alternative forms
- practice (US)
Verb
practise (third-person singular simple present practises, present participle practising, simple past and past participle practised)
- (transitive) To repeat (an activity) as a way of improving one's skill in that activity.
- You should practise playing piano every day.
- (intransitive) To repeat an activity in this way.
- If you want to speak French well, you need to practise.
- (transitive) To perform or observe in an habitual fashion.
- They gather to practise religion every Saturday.
- 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 39:
- Hydromancy was extensively practised by the Egyptian priests and sorcerers[.]
- 2012 March-April, John T. Jost, “Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)?”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 13 February 2012, page 162:
- He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record. With this biological framework in place, Corning endeavors to show that the capitalist system as currently practiced in the United States and elsewhere is manifestly unfair.
- (transitive) To pursue (a career, especially law, fine art or medicine).
- She practised law for forty years before retiring.
- (intransitive, obsolete) To conspire.
- To put into practice; to carry out; to act upon; to commit; to execute; to do.
- 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] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:
- Aught but Talbot's shadow whereon to practise your severity.
- 1715–1720, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book VII”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:
- As this advice ye practise or neglect.
- To make use of; to employ.
- 1629, Philip Massinger, Nathan Field, The Picture:
- In malice to this good knight's wife, I practised Ubaldo and Ricardo to corrupt her.
- To teach or accustom by practice; to train.
- 1828, Walter Savage Landor, “Lord Brooke and Sir Philip Sidney”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:
- In church they are taught to love God; after church they are practised to love their neighbour.
Usage notes
- In sense "to repeat an activity as a way improving one's skill" this is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing). See Appendix:English catenative verbs.
- British, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and South African English spelling distinguishes between practice (a noun) and practise (a verb), analogously with advice and advise though without an analogous difference in pronunciation. In American English, the spelling practice is commonly used for both noun and verb.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
to repeat an activity as a way of improving one's skill
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to perform or execute a craft or skill
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to perform or observe in a habitual fashion
to pursue (a career, especially law, fine art or medicine)
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Further reading
- “practise”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “practise”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
Etymology 2
Noun
practise (usually uncountable, plural practises)
- Obsolete spelling of practice.
- 1596, Geruase Babington, A Very Fruitfull Exposition of the Commaundements by Way of Questions and Answeres for Greater Plainnesse, R. Robinson, for Thomas Charde, page 45:
- And againe You ſaw that I ſpake to you from Heauen, therefore yee ſhall make no Gods of Golde nor ſiluer: as if he ſhould haue ſaide, my practiſe in ſpeakeing to you by voyce and not by Image ſhoulde teach you that by my word and not by image, I am be remembred.
- c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 80, column 2:
- By heauen (fond vvretch) yͧ knovvſt not vvhat thou ſpeak'ſt, / Or elſe thou art ſuborn'd againſt his honor / In hatefull practiſe: […]
- 1605, M. N. [pseudonym; William Camden], “The Languages”, in Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine, […], London: […] G[eorge] E[ld] for Simon Waterson, →OCLC, page 22:
- [T]he practiſe of the Normans, who as a monument of the Conqueſt, would have yoaked the Engliſh vnder their tongue, as they did vnder their command, by compelling them to teach their children in ſchooles nothing but French, […]
- 1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i:
- [C]ome forth, / And taſt the ayre of Palaces, eate, drinke / The toyles of Empricks, and their boaſted practiſe: / Tincture of Pearle, an Corall, Gold, and Amber; […]
- 1641, William Prynne, “The Prologve”, in The Antipathie of the English Lordly Prelacie, both to Regall Monarchy, and Civil Unity: or, An Historicall Collection of the Severall Execrable Treasons, Conspiracies, Rebellions, Seditions, State-schismes, Contumacies, Antimonarchicall Practices, & Oppressions of our English, British, French, Scottish, and Irish Lardly Prelates, against our Kingdomes, Lawes, Liberties; and of the Severall Warres, and Civil Dissentions Occasioned by Them, in or against our Realm, in Former and Latter Ages. [...] The First Part, volume I, London: Printed by authority for Michael Sparke, senior, →OCLC, page 1:
- [T]heſe Muſhrome Lords (Spirituall onely in Title, but wholly Temporall in reality), firſt ſprouted up by inſenſible degrees in the Church of Christ; ſo it is moſt infallibly convinced of notorious falſehood, by the multitude of thoſe moſt execrable Treaſons, Treacheries, Conſpiracies, Rebellions, Contumacies, Inſurrections, Seditions, and Anti-Monarchiall practiſes of Lordly Prelates, againſt their Soveraignes, in all ages ſince they grew rich and potent, in all Kingdomes and Churches where they have been admitted; […]
- 1654, H[enry] Hammond, “Of Christ’s Dying for None but the Elect”, in Of Fundamentals in a Notion Referring to Practise, London: […] J[ames] Flesher for Richard Royston, […], →OCLC, §. 7, page 135:
- All wch I have thus largely ſet down to ſhew the perfect conſonancie of our perſecuted Church to the doctrine of Scripture and Antiquity in this point, whereon ſo much depends for the ſtating & determining other differences, which have alſo a ſpecial influence on practiſe.
- 1658, Thomas Browne, Hydriotaphia, Urne-Buriall, or, A Discourse of the Sepulchrall Urnes Lately Found in Norfolk […], London: […] Hen. Brome […], page 16:
- How to keep the corps ſeven dayes from corruption by anointing and waſhing, without exenteration, were an hazardable peece of art, in our choiſeſt practiſe.
- Misspelling of practice.
Anagrams
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