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pry 1 of 2

verb (1)

Definition of prynext
1
as in to pull
to raise, move, or pull apart with or as if with a lever it took some effort to pry up the trap door

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in to yank
to draw out by force or with effort a vain attempt to pry the cork out of a wine bottle

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

pry

2 of 2

verb (2)

ˈprī How to pronounce pry (audio)
as in to interfere
to interest oneself in what is not one's concern don't go prying into other people's business

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for pry
  1. pull
  2. yank
  3. interfere
  4. lift
  5. extract
  6. poke
  7. pluck
  8. mess
Verb
  • Jackson’s availability was curbed by red cards at Chelsea — in Bruges, a barge and shirt pull with defender Han-Beom Lee suggested those flickers of fury and confrontation still burn.
    — Jacob Tanswell, New York Times, 9 Sep. 2026
  • When his brother pleads for help, Tariq is pulled back into the London criminal underworld and the dangerous orbit of their crime boss mother.
    — Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 9 Sep. 2026
Definition of pull
Verb
  • Sandra Ogbebor hunches over her softly humming refrigerator and scours through bottles before finally yanking out an orange juice.
    — Light Oriye Tamunotonye, Christian Science Monitor, 3 Sep. 2026
  • In one clip, a pair of people sit in a small box attached to a wire as they're yanked onto a platform across a river in Nuwakot, Nepal.
    — Robert McGreevy, FOXNews.com, 2 Sep. 2026
Definition of yank
Verb
  • When a magnetic field is applied to these wires, electron waves passing through different paths interfere, producing Aharonov-Bohm (AB) oscillations.
    — Ameya Paleja, Interesting Engineering, 4 Sep. 2026
  • But if the plan was to let sleeping dogs lie, Bartiromo interfered by passing along the internal guidance.
    — Brian Stelter, CNN Money, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of interfere
Verb
  • Marlins starter Eury Perez (7-11) was lifted after allowing a season-high 7 runs -- 5 earned -- and 10 hits over 4 innings.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 8 Sep. 2026
  • Competitors had to lift them onto podiums at different heights in the quickest time possible.
    — Rob Tanner, New York Times, 8 Sep. 2026
Definition of lift
Verb
  • Gulliver incredulously witnesses people attempting to extract sunbeams from cucumbers and turn excrement back into edible food.
    — Dónal Gill, The Dial, 8 Sep. 2026
  • As part of the investigation, those at Gamers Nexus were able to extract the names of the secondary devices as well as transcripts of private conversations people were having around the LG TV.
    — Jibin Joseph, PC Magazine, 8 Sep. 2026
Definition of extract
Verb
  • Traditionally, there’s this rendering of hell as a dark cave with fire, and there’s the devil with a pitchfork poking everybody with it.
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 9 Sep. 2026
  • With the help of Nollet, Anderson’s hair was blown and teased away from her forehead, with tinges of pink poking through.
    — Kaleigh Werner, Footwear News, 9 Sep. 2026
Definition of poke
Verb
  • That’s what life is like for NFL players who were plucked off the waiver wire last week, or those who have signed with a new team last week after not making their old team’s initial 53-man roster.
    — Omar Kelly, Miami Herald, 6 Sep. 2026
  • Last January Nessie O’Neil, a graduate student in biology at Miami University in Ohio, watched as a young pygmy raccoon plucked a receipt from the paper trash.
    — Isabel Gil, Scientific American, 3 Sep. 2026
Definition of pluck
Verb
  • Here’s how to bring flowers from your cutting garden indoors while keeping insects and mess out.
    — Andy Wilcox, Better Homes & Gardens, 1 Aug. 2026
  • The only way to mess this up is to not allow yourself the opportunity to touch it again and again and again.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 30 July 2026
Definition of mess
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

prurient
pry
prying
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Cite this Entry

“Pry.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pry. Accessed 16 Sep. 2026.

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Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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