preach
verbnouninterjectioncommon in dialogue
- United Kingdom//pɹiːt͡ʃ//
- United States//pɹit͡ʃ//
To give a sermon.
verb
- 1
To give a sermon.
Our pastor can preach very well.
One saint’s day in mid-term a certain newly-appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.” He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.
- 2
To proclaim by public discourse; to utter in a sermon or a formal religious harangue.
The Spirit of the Lord God is vpon me, therefore hathe the Lord anointed me: he hathe ſent me to preache good tidings vnto the poore,[…]
- 3
To advise or recommend earnestly.
My Mʳ preaches patience to him,[…]
- 4
To teach or instruct by preaching; to inform by preaching.
The Spirits of the Dead, / Quitting their mortal mansion, enter not, / As falsely ye are preached, their final seat / Of bliss, or bale;[…]
- 5
To give advice in an offensive or obtrusive manner.
Papa, don't preach, I'm in trouble, deep / Papa, don't preach, I've been losing sleep
Etymology
From Middle English prechen, from Old French prëechier, precchier (Modern French prêcher), from Latin praedicō (“to proclaim, announce”, literally “to fore-assign, pre-dedicate”). Doublet of predicate. The Latin word is also the source of Old English predician (“to preach”), Saterland Frisian preetje (“to preach”), West Frisian preekje (“to preach”), Dutch preken (“to preach”), German Low German preken (“to preach”), German predigen (“to preach”), Danish prædike (“to preach”), Swedish predika (“to preach”), Icelandic prédika (“to preach”), Norwegian Nynorsk preika (“to preach”).
noun
- 1
obsoleteA religious discourse.
he make peace in his preaches and play with esteem
interjection
- 1
slangUsed to express strong agreement (as if encouraging somebody to continue speaking).
– If you can't do the time, don't do the crime! – Preach!
Forms
- plural
- preaches
- past tense
- preached, praught
- past participle
- preached, praught
- present participle
- preaching
- third person singular
- preaches