pry
verb /praɪ/
/praɪ/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they pry | /praɪ/ /praɪ/ |
| he / she / it pries | /praɪz/ /praɪz/ |
| past simple pried | /praɪd/ /praɪd/ |
| past participle pried | /praɪd/ /praɪd/ |
| -ing form prying | /ˈpraɪɪŋ/ /ˈpraɪɪŋ/ |
- [intransitive] pry (into something) to try to find out information about other people’s private lives in a way that is annoying or rude
- I'm sick of you prying into my personal life!
- I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry.
- She tried to keep the children away from the prying eyes of the world's media.
- (especially North American English) (also prise especially in British English, North American English prize)to use force to separate something from something else
Word Originsense 1 Middle English (in the sense ‘peer inquisitively’): of unknown origin.sense 2 early 19th cent.: from the verb prise, interpreted as pries, third person singular of the present tense.