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/preɪ/ Listen

verb

Pray v. t.

To address earnest request to; to supplicate; to entreat; to implore; to beseech. "And as this earl was preyed, so did he." "We pray you... by ye reconciled to God."

To ask earnestly for; to seek to obtain by supplication; to entreat for. "I know not how to pray your patience."

To effect or accomplish by praying; as, to pray a soul out of purgatory.

To pray in aid. (Law)

(a)

To call in as a helper one who has an interest in the cause.

(b)

A phrase often used to signify claiming the benefit of an argument. See under Aid.

Pray v. i. (past & past part. prayed; pres. part. praying) To make request with earnestness or zeal, as for something desired; to make entreaty or supplication; to offer prayer to a deity or divine being as a religious act; specifically, to address the Supreme Being with adoration, confession, supplication, and thanksgiving. " And to his goddess pitously he preyde." "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

I pray (or by ellipsis Pray), I beg; I request; I entreat you; used in asking a question, making a request, introducing a petition, etc.; as, Pray, allow me to go. "I pray, sir. why am I beaten?"

Synonyms: To entreat; supplicate; beg; implore; invoke; beseech; petition.

noun

Pray n., v. See Pry. (Obs.)

See images of 'Pray'

Etymology of 'Pray'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Pray" Quotes from Famous Books

... wish you was strong enough to punish him; but if you was, he'd come whining to you and pray you not to. Men like him only make war on women ...

— The Spinners • Eden Phillpotts

... all content, Here's all the Forms of every Implement To work or carve with, so he makes the able To deck the Dresser, and adorn the Table. What dish goes first of every kind of Meat, And so ye're welcom, pray fall too, and eat. Reader, read on, for I have done; farewell, The Book's so good, it cannot chuse ...

— The accomplisht cook - or, The art & mystery of cookery • Robert May

... and musketry!" said he. "The little Russian body is engaged with the Tartar army! Pray Heaven that I may ...

— Michael Strogoff - or, The Courier of the Czar • Jules Verne

... you to determine. It must be in keeping with indefinite defining articles, and post-positive pre-positions. He says, "it joins words, but disjoins the sense."[22] And what is a word with out sense," pray tell us? If "words are the signs of ideas," how, in the name of reason, can you give the sign and separate the sense? You can as well separate the shadow from the substance, or a ...

— Lectures on Language - As Particularly Connected with English Grammar. • William S. Balch

... implore the blessing of the Most High on your head. My son will never support my feeble footsteps in my old age, but Heaven has preserved a good son to you. All the blessings that I wished for my poor Eugene, I now pray to God may be ...

— Debit and Credit - Translated from the German of Gustav Freytag • Gustav Freytag

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