Definition

1. Verb:
   • To force something open or apart using a lever or similar tool: This is the primary meaning, describing the action of using physical force with a tool to open, separate, or move something that is tightly closed or fixed.
   • To obtain something (like information) with effort or difficulty: This figurative sense means to extract something, typically information, from someone who is unwilling to give it.

Usage and Examples

• Verb (Physical Action):
  • He used a crowbar to prise open the wooden crate.
  • I had to prise the lid off the old paint tin.
• Verb (Figurative Action):
  • The journalist finally prised the truth from the reluctant witness.
  • It was difficult to prise a confession out of him.

Advanced Usage and Notes

• Spelling Variant: The word is more commonly spelled pry in American English. The spelling prise is standard in British English.
  • UK: She tried to prise the window open.
  • US: She tried to pry the window open.
• Often used with adverbs/prepositions: The verb is frequently followed by open, off, apart, out, from, or loose to specify the action.
  • prise off, prise apart, prise out

Variants and Related Words

• Pry (verb): The American English spelling variant of "prise," with identical meanings.
• Lever (verb): To move or lift something with a lever. This is a close synonym for the physical action sense.
• Jimmy (verb, chiefly US): To force something open, especially with a short crowbar (a "jimmy").

Synonyms

• Force open
• Jemmy (verb, UK)
• Wrest (as in )
• Extract (figurative sense)

Phrasal Verbs / Common Constructions

• Prise open: To use force to open something.
  • Firefighters had to prise open the car door to rescue the driver.
• Prise out of/from: To obtain information with difficulty from someone.
  • They couldn't prise the secret out of her.
• Prise off: To remove something by forcing it.
  • We prised the nameplate off the old desk.
• Prise apart: To separate things that are stuck together.
  • The two metals were fused and impossible to prise apart.

Idioms and Fixed Phrases

• To prise/pry someone's fingers loose: To make someone let go of something they are holding tightly, either literally or figuratively.
  • It took a long negotiation to prise his fingers loose from control of the company.
• To prise/pry open a market: A business idiom meaning to gain entry into a new or difficult market through persistent effort.
  • The new strategy helped them prise open the Asian market.

Verb

1. regard highly; think much of
   • I respect his judgement
   • We prize his creativity
2. make an uninvited or presumptuous inquiry
   • They pried the information out of him
3. to move or force, especially in an effort to get something open
   • The burglar jimmied the lock: Raccoons managed to pry the lid off the garbage pail