practiser
(ˈpræktɪsə(r))
Forms: see practise; 4–5 -our (5 -ere, -ir, 6 -ure, Sc. -ar), 6– -er.
[ME. practisour prob. a. AF. *practisour, agent-noun f. OF. pra(c)tiser: see practise v. and -our b; the suffix being between 1450 and 1550 weakened to -er2 3.]
One who practises.
1. One who exercises a profession or occupation; a practitioner: a. of medicine or surgery (often opposed to one trained in the science or art).
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xvi. 107 And did him assaye his surgerye on hem þat syke were, Till he was parfit practisoure. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 422 With vs ther was a Doctour of Phisik..He was a verray parfit praktisour [Lansd. MS. practisere]. c 1440 Gesta Rom. xx. 67 (Harl. MS.), Oon [leche]..sotill in crafte, and a good practiser. 1530 Palsgr. 257/2 Practysure, practicien. 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 133 They are like those sicke men which reiect the expert and cunning Physition,..and admitte the heedelesse practiser. 1666 W. Boghurst Loimographia (1894) 30 Many ignorant practizers took upon them the name of Doctors. 1767 T. Hutchinson Hist. Mass. (1768) II. 274 Another practiser,..who had been a surgeon in the French army. |
b. of law.
| a 1400–50 Alexander 1582 Practisirs & prematis [v.r. practyf men in prevatez] & prestis of þe lawe. 1552 Huloet, Practiser of lawe. 1573–80 Baret Alv. P 641 A Chauncerie man, or practiser in the lawe, to drawe out writtes. 1647 R. Stapylton Juvenal 182 Such barbarous cruelty who ever saw Done on a duller practicer at law? 1654 Gataker Disc. Apol. 33 The worthie Societie of the Professors, Practisers, and Students of the Common Law of this Land in Lincolns Inn. 1712 Lond. Gaz. No. 4954/1 Practicers of the Law in North Britain. 1876 Bancroft Hist. U.S. I. x. 332 He had been formerly a student and practiser in the courts of common law in England. |
c. gen. One who practises any art, science, manner of life, course of action, etc.; one who carries out a theory, principle, etc., in action.
| 1540–1 Elyot Image Gov. (1556) 135 Philosophers were neuer good practisers in weale publike. 1586 Praise of Mus. 20 Her professors and practisers were not rewarded. 1607 Norden Surv. Dial. iii. 136 Practizers and teachers of these Geometricall conclusions. 1762–71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) I. 218 Too illustrious a lover and even practicer of the art to be omitted. 1826 C. Butler Grotius vii. 113 Councillors and practisers of schemes hostile to its welfare. 1842 Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life (1870) III. ix. 156 A believer in, if not a practiser of, animal magnetism. 1854 Card. Wiseman Fabiola ii. xxxi. 340 She was..a serious, real practiser of all that she taught. |
† 2. A schemer, plotter, conspirator; a man of wicked or fraudulent devices. Obs.
| 1545 St. Papers Hen. VIII, X. 466 He is a gret practiser, with which honest terme we cover untrew tales tellyng, lying, dissimulyng, and flateryng. c 1610 Sir J. Melvil Mem. (1683) 158 A perfect practiser against the quiet of this state. 1643 5 Yrs. K. James in Select. Harl. Misc. (1793) 313 That my lord of Somerset was principal practiser..in a most perfidious manner, to set a train and trap for Overbury to get into the Tower. |