prize
Forms
- Plural
- prizes
- present (v1)
- prize
- past (v2)
- prized
- past participle (v3)
- prized
- present participle
- prizing
- 3rd person singular
- prizes
Definitions
1.That which is taken from another; something captured; a thing seized by force, stratagem, or superior power.
2.Anything captured by a belligerent using the rights of war; especially, property captured at sea in virtue of the rights of war, as a vessel.
3.An honour or reward striven for in a competitive contest; anything offered to be competed for, or as an inducement to, or reward of, effort.
- I fought and conquer’d, yet have lost the prize.
4.That which may be won by chance, as in a lottery.
- Cecil Rhodes […] was never tired of impressing upon one that the fact of being an Englishman was “the greatest prize in the lottery of life,” and that it was that thought which always sustained him when he was troubled.
1.To consider highly valuable; to esteem.
- I pris’d your Person, but your Crown disdain.
2.To move with a lever; to force up or open; to prise or pry.
- ‘Find some other black boxes to prize open.’
1.First-rate; exceptional.
- He was a prize fool.
2.Having won a prize; award-winning.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #2707
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English prise, from Old French prise (“a taking, capture, a seizure, a thing seized, a prize, booty, also hold, purchase”), past participle of prendre (“to take, to capture”), from Latin prēndere (“to take, seize”); see prehend.