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Pray
Definitions
- 1 Please; used to make a polite request archaic, formal, not-comparable
"pray silence for…"
- 2 Alternative form of pray tell (“I ask you”). alt-of, alternative, not-comparable
"Shall I be moved to love you, pray, / By hints that I must soon decay? / No woman's won by being told / How quickly she is growing old[...]"
- 1 A surname.
- 1 To direct words, thoughts, or one's attention to a deity or any higher being, for the sake of adoration, thanks, petition for help, etc.
"Muslims pray in the direction of Mecca."
- 2 call upon in supplication; entreat wordnet
- 3 To humbly beg a person for aid or their time.
- 4 address a deity, a prophet, a saint or an object of worship; say a prayer wordnet
- 5 To ask earnestly for; to seek to obtain by supplication; to entreat for. obsolete
"I know not how to pray your patience."
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- 6 To wish or hope strongly for a particular outcome.
"She is praying that the Red Sox will win tonight."
- 7 To implore, to entreat, to request. obsolete
"They prayd him sit, and gave him for to feed Such homely what as serves the simple clowne, That doth despise the dainties of the towne[…]"
Etymology
From Middle English preien, from Anglo-Norman preier, from Old French preier, proier (French prier), from Latin precārī, from prex, precis (“a prayer, a request”), from Proto-Italic *preks, from Proto-Indo-European *preḱ- (“to ask, woo”). Displaced native Old English gebiddan. Cognate via Indo-European of Old English frignan, fricgan, German fragen, Dutch vragen. Compare deprecate, imprecate, precarious.
Ellipsis of I pray you, I pray thee, whence also prithee.
* As an Irish surname, variant of Prey, from ó Préith, a personal name from Old Irish. * As an English surname, borrowed (via Middle English) from French pré (“meadow”).
See also for "pray"
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