Definitions

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

  • noun An apprentice.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An apprentice.

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

  • noun Obs. or Colloq. An apprentice.

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

  • noun obsolete An apprentice.
  • verb obsolete To apprentice.

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

  • noun works for an expert to learn a trade

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

An old (Middle English) aphetic form of apprentice; that is, a form which lost the unstressed initial vowel a and reduced the initial double pp to a single p.

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Examples

  • Later, as soon as I was relieved, I hurried down to the 'prentice's berth.

    The Ghost Pirates: Chapter 2 1909

  • "Not 'again,' Mr. Levy; and my 'prentice' hand, if you don't mind."

    Mr. Justice Raffles 1893

  • Keeping these latter words to himself, and returning his daughter's nod, he was passing into the workshop, with the smile she had awakened still beaming on his face, when he just caught sight of his 'prentice's brown paper cap ducking down to avoid observation, and shrinking from the window back to its former place, which the wearer no sooner reached than he began to hammer lustily.

    Barnaby Rudge Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 1892

  • Before to-day I had thought the 'prentice's life the merriest life in the world.

    Sir Ludar A Story of the Days of the Great Queen Bess Talbot Baines Reed 1872

  • The horse splashed the 'prentice's eyes and mouth full of mud as the stranger galloped away.

    The Day of Wrath M��r J��kai 1864

  • If you put the "'prentice" in it, show nothing more than his paper cap, because he will be an important character in the story, and you will need to know more about him as he is minutely described.

    The Letters of Charles Dickens Vol. 1 (of 3), 1833-1856 Charles Dickens 1841

  • Keeping these latter words to himself, and returning his daughter's nod, he was passing into the workshop, with the smile she had awakened still beaming on his face, when he just caught sight of his 'prentice's brown paper cap ducking down to avoid observation, and shrinking from the window back to its former place, which the wearer no sooner reached than he began to hammer lustily.

    Barnaby Rudge: a tale of the Riots of 'eighty Charles Dickens 1841

  • Keeping these latter words to himself, and returning his daughter's nod, he was passing into the workshop, with the smile she had awakened still beaming on his face, when he just caught sight of his 'prentice's brown paper cap ducking down to avoid observation, and shrinking from the window back to its former place, which the wearer no sooner reached than he began to hammer lustily.

    Barnaby Rudge 1840

  • a going to 'prentice' you: and to set you up in life, and make a man of you: although the expense to the parish is three pound ten!

    Oliver Twist Charles Dickens 1841

  • On October 10 the 'prentice' Henham writes: 'My master Betson is right well amended, blessed be Jesus, and he is past all doubts of sickness and he takes the sustenance right well, and as for physicians, there come none unto him, for he hath no need of them.' [

    Medieval People Eileen Edna Power 1914

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