Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To put into action or practice; execute; perform; enact.
  • To do or perform frequently or habitually; make a practice of; observe or follow usually: as, to practise the Christian virtues; to practise deception.
  • To make use of; frequent.
  • To exercise or pursue as a profession, art, or occupation: as, to practise law.
  • To exercise one's self in, with the object of acquiring skill or experience; study or learn by repeated performance: as, to practise a piece of music.
  • To cause to practise; teach by practice or exercise; train; drill.
  • To scheme; plot; contrive craftily or treacherously.
  • To influence; entice; tamper with; bribe.
  • To make; construct; build.
  • To perform certain acts repeatedly or usually; exercise, train, or drill one's self: as, to practise upon the piano; to practise with the rifle.
  • To form a habit of action; act or do habitually; hence, to behave; conduct one's self.
  • To exercise a profession; follow a vocation.
  • To experiment.
  • To negotiate secretly; have a secret understanding.
  • To use schemes or stratagems; conspire; plot.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • verb See practice.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland To repeat as a way of improving one's skill in that activity.
  • verb intransitive, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland To repeat an activity in this way.
  • verb transitive, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland To perform or observe in a habitual fashion.
  • verb transitive, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland To pursue (a career, especially law, fine art or medicine).
  • verb intransitive, obsolete, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland To conspire.
  • verb Alternative spelling of practice (verb).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb carry out or practice; as of jobs and professions
  • verb learn by repetition
  • verb engage in a rehearsal (of)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English practizen, a variant of practisen, from Middle French pratiser, practiser, from Medieval Latin practizo, from Late Latin practico ("to do, perform, execute, propose, practise, exercise, be conversant with, contrive, conspire, etc."), from prāctica ("practical affairs", "business"), from Ancient Greek πρακτική (prāktikē), from πρακτικός (praktikós, "practical"), from πράσσειν (prassein, "to do")

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Examples

  • But they cannot be mastered and applied by thinking or reading about them -- you must practise, _practise_, _PRACTISE_.

    The Art of Public Speaking Dale Carnagey 1906

  • The first efforts may be very lame, but if you want speed on a typewriter, a record for a hundred-yard dash, or facility in speaking, you must practise, _practise_, _PRACTISE_.

    The Art of Public Speaking Dale Carnagey 1906

  • This practise is almost absent now - my father who can be a little hard of hearing, is unable to follow Hindi movies produced today, but can still understand the older movies broadcast on TV.

    1980 Bollywood Film 2009

  • People at the bottom end of the legal job market seem in practise to drop out of lawyering.

    Matthew Yglesias » Too Many Lawyers, But Also Too Many Cartels 2010

  • I believe usual practise is to assume that if you got a nice early slide this time because of BST, you might get a kick in the rear end later in the year from the return to GMT; your twelve hour night shift magically morphing into a 13hr slog.

    Policing Pledge Is A Lie SHOCK « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2010

  • I suspect it is a senior officer having yet another example of ‘diversity in practise’ for the next promotion board! on January 14, 2010 at 2: 30 pm refurbished laptops as a short fella myself, I know this guy is going to face grief over his height, but it seems he has the right attitude.

    Devon & Cornwall « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2010

  • For example sometimes Scott puts his e-mail address like this: ‘myextralife at gmail dot com’, best practise is to put you e-mail in a picture where the bots cant harvest them easily or hide the e-mail behind a CAPTCHA.

    EXTRALIFE – By Scott Johnson - Sometimes this site gets crazy spam 2008

  • My example of the "walking" was one such attempt: I didn't say it was likely that such would happen in practise (it is not), but rather that, legally it wouldn't make sense to assume the literal right to assemble without the incorporation of some panoply (or "penumbra") of associated rights that, while not explicit, in their absense would gut or make a mockery of the one right explicitly given.

    Balkinization 2007

  • In some instances, they'd marry the local doctor and support him in practise well able to focus her primary attention upon the family - sons and dauhters following in the family tradition, building up the family dynasty as it were. (not the gigantic supermarket medical centres of today).

    A Look at the Past 2006

  • It is remarkable that mankind, and turtles, and pigeons alone practise kissing; hence the Latin word

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

Comments

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  • An instance where something is lost in the American spelling system.

    I do like that I can make a distinction between practice (noun) and practise (verb). And the trick I learned as a kid was that the noun form ended with a noun (ice!).

    April 1, 2008

  • That's just wrong.

    April 1, 2008

  • Whoa. That's an interesting distinction.

    June 8, 2011

  • It's like advise and advice, only there is no difference in pronunciation. Or is there, Frindley?

    June 8, 2011

  • Not that I can detect.

    June 8, 2011