Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PRAT'IC, or PRAT-IQUE', n. [It. pratica; Sp. practica; Fr. pratique. See Practice.]

In commerce, primarily, converse; intercourse; the communication between a ship and the port in which she arrives. Hence, a license or permission to hold intercourse and trade with the inhabitants of a place, after having performed quarantine, or upon a certificate that the ship did not come from an infected place; a term used particularly in the South of Europe, where vessels coming from countries infected with contagious diseases, are subjected to quarantine.