Definition of "pry"

pry¹

/pɹaɪ/

verb
third-person singular simple present pries, present participle prying, simple past and past participle pried
1. (intransitive)
  1. To peer closely and curiously, especially at something closed or not public.
    Quotations
    [W]omen haue eagles eyes, / To prie euen to the heart, and why not you?
    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, page 11, lines 293–294
    […] 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, […]
    1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, lines 158–161
    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: […]
    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, […], page 19
  2. (figuratively) To inquire into something that does not concern one; to be nosy; to snoop.
    Quotations
    Watch thou, and wake when others be aſleepe, / To prie into the ſecrets of the State, […]
    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, [Act I, scene i], page 122, column 1
    We literary hacks are shameless creatures. I believe there's no secret of the human heart into which we wouldn't pry.
    1908, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, “Possibilities of a Pleasant Outing”, in A Room with a View, London: Edward Arnold, part I, page 73
2. (transitive, obsolete) To peer at (something) closely; also, to look into (a matter, etc.) thoroughly.
  Quotations
  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.
  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, page 357
noun
plural pries
1. An act of prying; a close and curious look.
  Quotations
  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.
  1817 March 3, John Keats, “[Poems.] To ****”, in Poems, London: […] [Charles Richards] for C[harles] & J[ames] Ollier, […]; reprinted in Poems (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, 1927, stanza 1, page 37
2. A person who is very inquisitive or nosy; a busybody, a nosey parker.

pry²

/pɹaɪ/

noun
plural pries
1. (East Anglia, US) A tool for levering; a crowbar, a lever.
verb
third-person singular simple present pries, present participle prying, simple past and past participle pried
1. To use leverage to open, raise, or widen (something); to prise or prize.
  Quotations
  "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."
  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, page 158
2. (figuratively) Usually followed by out (of): to draw out or get (information, etc.) with effort.

Definition of "pry"

pry1

verb

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noun

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pry2

noun

verb

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pry¹

pry²