Emily Dickinson Lexicon

prank, n. [Origin uncertain.] (webplay: children, manner, show, trick).

1. Trick; mischief; stunt; knavery; practical joke; [fig.] surprise; shock; unexpected occurrence; sudden twist in events.
2. Adornment; ornament; decoration; keepsake; trinket.
3. Feat; achievement; [fig.] characteristic action.

prank (-s), v. [Origin obscure.]

Dance; prance; frolic; play; [fig.] flicker; shine; glow.

prate, v. [Perhaps onomatopoetic; related to Da. prate, to talk.] (webplay: children).

Chatter; babble; talk incessantly and foolishly.

prater, n. [see prate.]

Chatterer; babbler; gossip; talebearer; busybody; person who cannot keep a secret.

prattle, v. [Dim. of prate, v.] (webplay: love).

Babble; mutter; speak incoherently; utter foolish things; rave deliriously.

pray (-ed, -ing), v. [ME preien < OFr preier < late L. precārī, entreat, pray.] (webplay: ask, bed, blessed, Christ's, door, Father, forgiven, God, granted, heart, judgment, know, mercy, openly, perfections, petition, reasons, received, seeth, shut, solemnity, sounds, speak, supplicate, tell, throw, time, words, worship).

1. Worship; supplicate; petition God; address the Creator; communicate with Deity; kneel in humble entreaty to a Supreme Being; fulfill religious duty by reciting a devotional text.
2. Ask; request; urge; entreat; beg; importune; plead; hope; wish; desire; want.
3. Please; [elliptically] if you please; I ask you; I implore you.

prayer (-s), n. [see pray, v.] (webplay: address, ask, bless, call, cause, door, famed, forgiven, God, good, granted, gratitude, heart, help, intercession, judgment, know, mildness, peace, perfections, recital, seeth, service, shut, solemnity, Supreme, tell, throw, time, worship).

1. Devotion; worship; petition; request; act of supplicating God; humble entreaty to a Supreme Being; communication with Deity.
2. Pleading on behalf of another.
3. Wish; desire; hope.
4. Thanksgiving; gratitude; thankfulness.
5. Religious text; liturgy; set words of devotion meant to be recited.
6. Song; devotional hymn; musical worship or praise; [fig.] chirping.

preach (-ed, -es), v. [ME < Fr. < OFr < L. prædicāre, proclaim publicly, announce.] (webplay: proclaim, sermon, truths).

Teach; lecture; discourse; present a sermon; deliver a religious address; utter a moral exhortation.

preappointed, verbal adj. [L. præ, before, in front, in advance + OFr apointe-r < à point, to the point, into condition.]

Predetermined; foreordained; destined; chosen in advance.

precarious, adj. [L. precāri-us, obtained by entreaty, depending on the favor of another, uncertain.] (webplay: pleasure, unknown).

1. Uncertain; timid; tentative; doubtful; hesitating; halting; [fig.] unsteady; wavering.
2. Insecure; unguaranteed; vulnerable; subject to the desires of a superior; held for an uncertain period of time; liable to be taken away at the pleasure of another; [fig.] temporary; fleeting; borrowed; loaned.
3. At risk; [fig.] fallible; mortal; finite; perishable; temporal; subject to death.