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pray

verb
/pɹeɪ/

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *preḱ- Proto-Italic *preks Latin prex Latin precārī Late Latin precāre Old French proiier Anglo-Norman preierbor. Middle English preien English pray Inherited from Middle English preien, borrowed from Anglo-Norman preier, from Old French proiier, from Late Latin precāre, from Latin precārī, from prex (“request, petition, prayer”), from Proto-Italic *preks, from Proto-Indo-European *preḱ- (“to request, ask”). Displaced native Old English gebiddan. Cognate via Indo-European of Old English frignan, fricgan, German fragen, Dutch vragen. Compare deprecate, imprecate, precarious.

  1. derived from pré — “meadow”

Definitions

  1. To direct words, thoughts, or one's attention to a deity or any higher being, for the…

    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.
    • Pray to the small gods and hope that they may hear thee. Yet what mercy should the small gods have, who themselves made Death and Pain; or shall they restrain their old hound Time for thee?

  2. To humbly beg a person for aid or their time.

  3. To ask earnestly for

    To ask earnestly for; to seek to obtain by supplication; to entreat for.

    • I know not how to pray your patience.
  4. ›+ 5 more definitions

    1. To wish or hope strongly for a particular outcome.

      • She is praying that the Red Sox will win tonight.

    2. To implore, to entreat, to request.

      • 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[…]
      • In time of drought the Abchases of the Caucasus sacrifice an ox to Ap-hi, the god of thunder and lightning, and an old man prays him to send rain, thunder, and lightning, telling him that the crops are parched.
      • I humbly pray to the Honorable Court for the order for the removal of the publication which contains fake news to be granted.

    3. Please

      Please; used to make a polite request

      • pray silence for…
      • "Pray, Mr. Knightley," said Emma, who had been smiling to herself through a great part of this speech, "how do you know that Mr. Martin did not speak yesterday?"
      • Pray don’t ask me why, pray don’t be sorry, pray don’t be vexed with me, I have nothing to do with it indeed!

    4. Alternative form of pray tell (“I ask you”).

      • 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[...]
      • He is a South American, so perhaps revolutionary spirit courses through Francis's veins. But what, pray, does the Catholic church want with doubt?

    5. A surname.

The neighborhood

Derived

nonpraying, outpray, plug and pray, prayable, prayee, prayer, prayful, pray in aid, praying Indian, prayingly, praying machine, praying mantid, praying mantis, praying shawl, pray tell, pray the gay away, pray to the porcelain god, pray to the porcelain goddess, prithee, spray and pray, unpray, unprayed, unpraying

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at pray. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01pray02entreat03plea04prayer05praying

A definitional loop anchored at pray. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

5 hops · closes at pray

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA