pry

See also: PRY, Pry, and prý

English

WOTD – 26 August 2021

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /pɹaɪ/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
Rhymes: -aɪ

Etymology 1

The verb is inherited from Middle English prien, pryen (“to look closely, peer into, pry, spy”) [and other forms],[1] from Old English *prīwan, *prēowian (“to look narrowly, to squint at”), attested by Old English beprīwan, beprēwan (“to wink”); further etymology unknown,[2] 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.[3]

Verb

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

(intransitive)
1. To peer closely and curiously, especially at something closed or not public.
  - 1599 (first performance), [Thomas Dekker; Henry Chettle; William Houghton], The Pleasant Comodie of Patient Grissill. […], London: […] Henry Rocket, […], published 1603; republished Erlangen, Bavaria: […] Fr. Junge (Junge & Sohn), 1893, OCLC 898789288, lines 293–294, page 11:
    [W]omen haue eagles eyes, / To prie euen to the heart, and why not you?
  - 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554, lines 158–161:
    […] 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, […]
  - 1815, William Wordsworth, “Canto First”, in The White Doe of Rylstone; or The Fate of the Nortons. A Poem, London: […] [James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], OCLC 221645365, page 19:
    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: […]
2. (figuratively) To inquire into something that does not concern one; to be nosy; to snoop.
  - 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 Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i], page 122, column 1:
    Watch thou, and wake when others be aſleepe, / To prie into the ſecrets of the State, […]
  - 1908, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, “Possibilities of a Pleasant Outing”, in A Room with a View, London: Edward Arnold, OCLC 364461, part I, page 73:
    We literary hacks are shameless creatures. I believe there's no secret of the human heart into which we wouldn't pry.
(transitive, obsolete) To peer at (something) closely; also, to look into (a matter, etc.) thoroughly.
- 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 1855, OCLC 41502660, page 357:
  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.

Conjugation

Conjugation of pry

2nd-person singular	pry
infinitive	(to) pry
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	pry	pried
3rd-person singular	pries
plural	pry

subjunctive	pry	pried

imperative	pry	—

participles	prying	pried

Derived terms

pryer
prying (noun)
pryingly

Translations

to peer closely and curiously, especially at something closed or not public

Bulgarian: надничам (bg) (nadničam)
Dutch: gluren (nl), loeren (nl), snuffelen (nl)
Finnish: kurkistaa (fi), penkoa (fi), tirkistää, töllistellä
French: fureter (fr), fouiller (fr), scruter (fr)
German: genau hinsehen, genau nachsehen
Italian: sbirciare (it)
Latin: inquīrō (la)
Spanish: husmear (es)

to inquire into something that does not concern one; to be nosy

Bulgarian: пъхам си носа (pǎham si nosa)
Catalan: dotorejar (ca)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 窺探／窥探 (zh) (kuītàn)
Dutch: boren (nl), steken (nl)
Finnish: nuuskia (fi), tiedustella (fi), udella (fi), urkkia (fi)
French: s'immiscer (fr)
German: schnüffeln (de)
Hebrew: חטטנות‎ (ḥatetanut)
Italian: intrudere (it)
Japanese: 首を突っ込む (kubi-o tsukkomu), 詮索する (ja) (せんさくする, sensaku-suru)
Maori: mahira, whawhewhawhe
Persian: سر و گوش آب دادن‎ (sar o gush Ab dAdan)
Portuguese: bisbilhotar (pt), xeretar (pt)
Russian: подсма́тривать (ru) (podsmátrivatʹ), следи́ть (ru) (sledítʹ), шпио́нить (ru) (špiónitʹ), выве́дывать (ru) (vyvédyvatʹ)
Spanish: entremeter (es) (pronominal), fisgar (es), fisgonear (es), hurgar (es)

Noun

pry (plural pries)

An act of prying; a close and curious look.
Synonym: prying
- 1817 March 3, John Keats, “[Poems.] To ****”, in Poems, London: […] [Charles Richards] for C[harles] & J[ames] Ollier, […], OCLC 12163218; reprinted in Poems (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, 1927, OCLC 223237353, stanza 1, page 37:
  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.
A person who is very inquisitive or nosy; a busybody, a nosey parker.
Synonym: (chiefly US) Paul Pry

Related terms

Paul Pry (predates sense 2)

Translations

act of prying; close and curious look

Finnish: urkinta (fi), urkkiminen, utelu (fi), uteleminen (fi)

person who is very inquisitive or nosy — See also translations at busybody,‎ nosey parker

Bulgarian: любопитко n (ljubopitko)
Finnish: urkkija (fi), utelija (fi)
Maori: whawhewhawhe
Persian: کنجکاو‎ (fa) (konjkAv) (with neutral or positive connotation), فضول‎ (fa) (fozul) (with negative connotation)

Etymology 2

The noun is probably a back-formation from prise, prize (“tool for levering, lever”), construed as the plural of pry.[4]

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.[5]

Noun

pry (plural pries)

(East Anglia, US) A tool for levering; a crowbar, a lever.
Synonyms: (both chiefly historical) prise, prize, prybar, pry bar

Translations

tool for levering — See also translations at crowbar

Bulgarian: лост (bg) m (lost)
Dutch: priem (nl) m, hefboom (nl) m, hendel (nl) m
Finnish: kanki (fi), vipu (fi)
German: Hebel (de) m
Hebrew: מנוף‎ (he) m (manof)
Latvian: svira
Russian: рыча́г (ru) m (ryčág)

Verb

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

To use leverage to open, raise, or widen (something); to prise or prize.
- 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 41502660, page 158:
  "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."
(figuratively) Usually followed by out (of): to draw out or get (information, etc.) with effort.

Derived terms

prybar, pry bar

Translations

to use leverage to open, raise, or widen

Bulgarian: разбивам с лост (razbivam s lost)
Dutch: openwrikken, priemen (nl), wrikken (nl)
Finnish: kammeta (fi), kangeta (fi), vivuta (fi)
German: aufhebeln (de)
Maori: whakatiriwhana
Slovak: vylámať n, vypáčiť n
Spanish: hacer palanca

to draw out or get (information, etc.) with effort

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

Italian: ^{(please verify)} effrarre

References

“prīen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
“pry, v.¹”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “pry¹, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
“† pry, n.³”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2019.
“pry, n.⁴”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020.
“pry, v.²”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “pry², v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

pyr-

Yola

Alternative forms

praie

Etymology

From Middle English preien, from Anglo-Norman preier, from Old French proiier, from Latin precor.

Verb

pry (simple past pryet)

to pray

References

Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 63

[1] “prīen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

[2] “pry, v.¹”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “pry¹, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

[3] “† pry, n.³”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2019.

[4] “pry, n.⁴”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020.

[5] “pry, v.²”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “pry², v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.