PRAY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Pray

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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

... your own passionate self! Nay, you must take my advice. Pray, do not go rashly about it, but act as I have ...

— The Wild Huntress - Love in the Wilderness • Mayne Reid

... suffering, and now he is unconscious. He does not know me, Ellen! He does not hear me when I call. I think he does not see. Oh, Ellen, what would life be to me if I lose my darling. And now I want you to pray! You can pray, Ellen, and God answers your prayers. Pray for the life of my child! Mammy prays, but she will only say, 'The will ...

— Lewie - Or, The Bended Twig • Cousin Cicely

... and children— leave the villages and spend the few weeks of glorious weather rambling over the vast undulating expanses of sand in the middle of the Solimoens, fishing, hunting, collecting eggs of turtle and plovers and thoroughly enjoying themselves. The inhabitants pray always for a "vasante grande," ...

— The Naturalist on the River Amazons • Henry Walter Bates

... my assurance," she confessed. "I am not quite hardened, as you know; and when I realized that M. V—— was actually dead, I was obliged to pray for him. I have left the key ...

— The International Spy - Being the Secret History of the Russo-Japanese War • Allen Upward

... pray aloud: "Lord, Thou hast been pleased to call me, and I come. Receive my soul in pity, and forgive me my many sins. And, oh Lord God, grant that this my young friend may live to see the light and to worship Thee. Let this be his hour of repentance. Start him upon a new path, and keep his ...

— Swirling Waters • Max Rittenberg

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