Dictionary

prest en · VERB · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /prɛst/

Meanings

1. (archaic, form-of, participle, past) simple past and past participle of press
   form of press
   • And when loftier mansions prest/Lure of pleasure on their guest 1850, Lydia Sigourney, Return to Native Land from Poems for the Sea, page 80:

prest en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /prɛst/

Etymology

From Middle English prest, from Old French prest, deverbal from prester.

Meanings

1. (rare) A payment of wages in advance
2. A loan or advance (of money)
   • Requiring of the city a prest of six thousand marks. 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC:
3. A tax or duty
4. (obsolete) A sum of money paid to a soldier or sailor upon enlistment
5. A duty in money formerly paid by the sheriff on his account in the exchequer, or for money left or remaining in his hands.
   • the same tayles soe hereafter there to be levyed and striken, shalbe delyvered unto everye of the same Sheriffes[…]without prest or other chardge to be sett upon them for the same. 1548, King Edward VI, Act 2:

Forms

Deriveds

prest money

prest en · ADJ · etymology 3

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /prɛst/

Etymology

From Middle English prest, borrowed from Old French prester, from Latin praesto, praestare.

Meanings

1. (obsolete) Ready; prompt; prepared.
2. (obsolete) Neat; tidy; proper.
   • False knave ready prest, All safe is the best 1557 February 13 (Gregorian calendar), Thomas Tusser, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, London: […] Richard Tottel, →OCLC; republished London: […] Robert Triphook, […], and William Sancho, […], 1810, →OCLC:
3. (obsolete) Quick, brisk.
   • The fauconer then was prest, Came runnynge with a dow, And cryed, ‘Stow, stow, stow!’ But she wold not bow. c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 63, lines 71–74:

Forms

prest en · VERB · etymology 3

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /prɛst/

Etymology

From Middle English prest, borrowed from Old French prester, from Latin praesto, praestare.

Meanings

1. (obsolete, transitive) To give as a loan; to lend.
   • a greate part of our armie already prested, and in our wages to go forward 1550, Edward Hall, Chronicle:

Forms