practice

PRAC'TICE, n. [Gr. to act, to do, to make; Eng. to brook, and broker; L. fruor, for frugor or frucor, whence fructus, contracted into fruit; frequens.]

1. Frequent or customary actions; a succession of acts of a similar kind or in a like employment; as the practice of rising early or of dining late; the practice of reading a portion of Scripture morning and evening; the practice of making regular entries of accounts; the practice of virtue or vice. Habit is the effect of practice.

2. Use; customary use.

Obsolete words may be revived when the are more sounding or significant than those in practice.

3. Dexterity acquired by use. [Unusual.]

4. Actual performance; distinguished from theory.

There are two functions of the soul, contemplation and practice, according to the general division of objects, some of which only entertain our speculations, others employ our actions.

5. Application of remedies; medical treatment of diseases. Tow physicians may differ widely in their practice.

6. Exercise of any profession; as the practice of law or of medicine; the practice of arms.

7. Frequent use; exercise for instruction or discipline. The troops are daily called out for practice.

8. Skillful or artful management; dexterity in contrivance or the use of means; art; stratagem; artifice; usually in a bad sense.

He sought to have that by practice which he could not by prayer.

[This use of the word is genuine; from L. experior. It is not a mistake as Johnson supposes. See the Verb.]

9. A rule in arithmetic, by which the operations of the general rules are abridged in use.

PRAC'TICE, v.t. [From the noun. The orthography of the verb ought to be the same as of the noun; as in notice and to notice.]

1. To do or perform frequently, customarily or habitually; to perform by a succession of acts; as, to practice gaming; to practice fraud or deception; to practice the virtues of charity and beneficence; to practice hypocrisy. Is.32.

Many praise virtue who do not practice it.

2. To use or exercise any profession or art; as, to practice law or medicine; to practice gunnery or surveying.

3. To use or exercise for instruction, discipline or dexterity. [In this sense, the verb is usually intransitive.]

4. To commit; to perpetrate; as the horrors practiced at Wyoming.

5. To use; as a practiced road. [Unusual.]

PRAC'TICE, v.i. To perform certain acts frequently or customarily, either for instruction, profit, or amusement; as, to practice with the broad sword; to practice with the rifle.

1. To form a habit of acting in any manner.

They shall practice how to live secure.

2. To transact or negotiate secretly.

I have practic'd with him,

And found means to let the victor know

That Syphax and Sempronius are his friends.

3. To try artifices.

Others, by guilty artifice and arts

Of promis'd kindness, practic'd on our hearts.

4. To use evil arts or stratagems.

If you there

Did practice on my state--