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Pry   /praɪ/   Listen
Pry

verb
(past & past part. pried; pres. part. prying)
1.
To move or force, especially in an effort to get something open.  Synonyms: jimmy, lever, prise, prize.  "Raccoons managed to pry the lid off the garbage pail"
2.
Be nosey.
3.
Search or inquire in a meddlesome way.  Synonyms: horn in, intrude, nose, poke.
4.
Make an uninvited or presumptuous inquiry.  Synonym: prise.
noun
1.
A heavy iron lever with one end forged into a wedge.  Synonyms: crowbar, pry bar, wrecking bar.



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"Pry" Quotes from Famous Books



... Edwards's statements in the Gangraena. But really one should not judge of even a poor enthusiastic woman, dead two hundred years ago, on that sole authority. Never was there a more nauseous creature of the pious kind than this Presbyterian Paul Pry of 1644-46. He revelled in scandals, and kept a private office for the receipt of all sorts of secret information, by word of mouth or letter, that could be used against the Independents and the Sectaries. ...
— The Life of John Milton Vol. 3 1643-1649 • David Masson

... vinegar-cruet in the other, having just broken away from the occupation of attending to the castors, and scolding her little black boy meantime. Wood-house! cried I, which way to it? Run for God's sake, and fetch something to pry open the door —the axe! —the axe! he's had a stroke; depend upon it! —and so saying I was unmethodically rushing up stairs again empty-handed, when Mrs. Hussey interposed the mustard-pot and vinegar-cruet, ...
— Moby-Dick • Melville

... a young lawyer chap; calls himself Royal Maillot. I can't pry out of either of 'em what he ...
— The Paternoster Ruby • Charles Edmonds Walk

... gaze, stare, see, con, gloat, glare, peek, peer, pry, peep, pore, lower, glower, scan, ogle; seem, appear; await, expect, anticipate; examine, ...
— Putnam's Word Book • Louis A. Flemming

... heaven's eye Cannot upon thy beauty pry; Glad Echo in distinguished voice Naming thee will here rejoice; Then come and hear her merry lays Crowning thy name with ...
— Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age • Various


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