Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To do or perform habitually or customarily; make a habit of.
  • intransitive verb To do or perform (something) repeatedly in order to acquire or polish a skill.
  • intransitive verb To give lessons or repeated instructions to; drill.
  • intransitive verb To work at, especially as a profession.
  • intransitive verb To carry out in action; observe.
  • intransitive verb Obsolete To plot (something evil).
  • intransitive verb To do something repeatedly in order to acquire or polish a skill.
  • intransitive verb To work at a profession.
  • intransitive verb To do or perform something habitually or repeatedly.
  • intransitive verb Archaic To intrigue or plot.
  • noun A habitual or customary action or way of doing something.
  • noun Repeated performance of an activity in order to learn or perfect a skill.
  • noun A session of preparation or performance undertaken to acquire or polish a skill.
  • noun Archaic The skill so learned or perfected.
  • noun The condition of being skilled through repeated exercise.
  • noun The act or process of doing something; performance or action.
  • noun Exercise of an occupation or profession.
  • noun The business of a professional person.
  • noun A habitual or customary action or act.
  • noun Law The procedure for trial of cases in a court of law, usually specified by rules.
  • noun The act of tricking or scheming, especially with malicious intent.
  • noun A trick, scheme, or intrigue.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Action; exercise; performance; the process of accomplishing or carrying out; performance or execution as opposed to speculation or theory.
  • noun An action; act; proceeding; doing: in the plural, generally in a bad sense.
  • noun Frequent or customary performance; habit; usage; custom.
  • noun The regular pursuit of some employment or business; the exercise of a profession; hence, the business of a practitioner: as, to dispose of one's practice; a physician in lucrative practice.
  • noun Exercise for instruction or discipline; training; drill: as, practice makes perfect.
  • noun The state of being used; customary use; actual application.
  • noun Skill acquired through use; experience; dexterity.
  • noun Artifice; treachery; a plot; a stratagem.
  • noun In arithmetic, a rule for expeditiously solving questions in proportion, or rather for abridging the operation of multiplying quantities expressed in different denominations, as when it is required to find the value of a number of articles at so many pounds, shillings, and pence each.
  • noun The form and manner of conducting legal proceedings, whether at law, or in equity, or in criminal procedure, according to the principles of law and the rules of the court; those legal rules which direct the course of proceeding to bring parties into court, and the course of the court after they are brought in. Bishop.
  • noun Hence, in possession of (or lacking) that skill or facility which comes from the continuous exercise of bodily or mental power.
  • noun Synonyms Habit, Usage, etc. See custom.
  • noun Practice, Experience. Practice is sometimes erroneously used for experience, which is a much broader word. Practice is the repetition of an act: as, to become a skilled marksman by practice. Experience is, by derivation, a going clear through, and may mean action, but much oftener views the person as acted upon, taught, disciplined, by what befalls him.
  • See practise.

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

  • noun Frequently repeated or customary action; habitual performance; a succession of acts of a similar kind; usage; habit; custom
  • noun Customary or constant use; state of being used.
  • noun rare Skill or dexterity acquired by use; expertness.
  • noun Actual performance; application of knowledge; -- opposed to theory.
  • noun Systematic exercise for instruction or discipline
  • noun Application of science to the wants of men; the exercise of any profession; professional business
  • noun obsolete Skillful or artful management; dexterity in contrivance or the use of means; art; stratagem; artifice; plot; -- usually in a bad sense.
  • noun (Math.) A easy and concise method of applying the rules of arithmetic to questions which occur in trade and business.
  • noun (Law) The form, manner, and order of conducting and carrying on suits and prosecutions through their various stages, according to the principles of law and the rules laid down by the courts.
  • transitive verb To do or perform frequently, customarily, or habitually; to make a practice of.
  • transitive verb To exercise, or follow, as a profession, trade, art, etc., .
  • transitive verb To exercise one's self in, for instruction or improvement, or to acquire discipline or dexterity

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English practisen, from Old French practiser, alteration of practiquer, from practique, practice, from Medieval Latin prāctica; see practicable.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

See practise.

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