Meaning & use
pry
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Meanings
verbintransitivedisapproving
To ask questions or look into someone's private life when you have no right to, because you are curious.
Grammar: No object; often with into: pry into my affairs.
Patterns
- pry into something
- pry about something
I don't want to pry, but are you feeling all right?
The neighbors liked to pry into everyone's business.
Reporters pried into the singer's private life.
verbtransitive
To lift, move or open something by pushing a tool or hand under or into it as a lever.
Grammar: Takes an object, often followed by open, off or up: pry the lid off.
Patterns
- pry something open
- pry something off
- pry something from something
He pried the lid off the paint can with a screwdriver.
She pried the window open with a knife.
The workers pried up the old floorboards.
verbtransitivefigurative
To get information or something else from someone with great effort.
Grammar: Often figurative with out of or from: pry the truth out of him.
Patterns
- pry something out of someone
- pry something from someone
I could not pry a single answer out of the witness.
It took hours to pry the secret from her.
You will have to pry the money out of his hands.
Word forms
| third person singular | pries |
|---|---|
| past tense | pried |
| past participle | pried |
| -ing form | prying |
Common combinations
- pry into
- Don't pry into other people's emails.
- pry open
- He pried open the crate with a crowbar.
- pry something loose
- She pried the tile loose with a spoon.
- prying eyes
- The curtains kept out prying eyes.
- pry something out of someone
- I couldn't pry a thing out of my brother.
- don't mean to pry
- I don't mean to pry, but who was on the phone?
Synonyms and how they differ
- snoop
- Snoop is more informal and suggests secretly looking around, while pry describes asking or searching intrusively.
- meddle
- Meddle means to interfere in things that don't concern you, whereas pry is about seeking information.
- nose around
- Nose around is casual and light, often describing looking for things in a place.
- lever
- Lever is the technical verb for moving something with a bar, while pry is the everyday word.
Opposites
Word family
- prying adjective
- too curious about private matters
- prier noun
- someone who pries; rare
- pryingly adverb
- in an intrusive way
Commonly confused: pry or prey? pry or pray?
pry vs prey
Prey is an animal hunted for food, or the verb to hunt; it is pronounced differently from pry.
pry vs pray
Pray means to speak to a god, and it sounds like prey rather than pry.
Practice
Which sentence uses pry to mean intrude on private matters?
Choose one answer.
Pried into our family affairs is the curious, intrusive sense. The other sentences describe levering something physically.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pry”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.