▪ I. prentice, n. Now arch. or dial.
(ˈprɛntɪs)
Forms: 4–6 prentis, -ys, -yse, -yce, -iz, Sc. -eis, (4 -yss, -ese, prenttis, printiz, -yce, preyntyce, 5 prentez, -isse, 5–6 -es, 6 -esse, Sc. -eiss), 4–7 prentise, Sc. printeis, 6–7 prentize, 5– prentice, (8– 'prentice).
[Aphetic form of apprentice. The pl. was sometimes prentis, prentes, -ez, etc.]
1. a. = apprentice n. 1.
to send or put to prentice, to bind as apprentice.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 12233 Als printiz [v.rr. prentiz, prentis] wend i him haf ouer-cummen. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 116, I seruede Simme atte noke, And was his pliht prentys his profyt to loke. 1453–4 Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889) I. 280 Irysh jornaymen, Irysh prentesys. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 61 b, Then all the young men resisted the Alderman..and cryed prentyses and clubbes. 1556 Chron. Gr. Friars (Camden) 30 Thys yere was yell May day, that yong men and prentes of London rose in the nyght. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, ii. iii. 71 Be merry Peter, and feare not thy Master, Fight for credit of the Prentices. 1611 Glasgow Burgh Rec. (1876) I. 318 That na printeis heireftir salbe admittit burges except his maister compeir with him. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 107 ¶7 Sir Roger..sent his Coachman's Grandson to Prentice. 1721 Amherst Terræ Fil. No. 38 (1754) 202 City 'prentices and lawyers clerks. 1857 Ruskin Pol. Econ. Art 31 Stupid tailor's 'prentices who are always stitching the sleeves in the wrong way upwards. |
† b. A learner generally; a disciple. Obs.
| [1292 Britton vi. iii. §3 En eyde des prentiz [for the assistance of learners].] c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints ii. (Paulus) 248 A woman..þat..to petir printeis had bene. Ibid. iii. (Andreas) 479 Þu tak to þe Þe forme of prenttis, gyf þat þu Wil knaw it þat þou speris now! |
† 2. Law. = apprentice n. 2. Obs.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xix. 226 Prechoures & prestes & prentyces of lawe. 1399 ― Rich. Redeles iii. 350 Ffor selde were þe sergiauntis souȝte ffor to plete, Or ony prentise of courte preied of his wittis. 1460 J. Capgrave Chron. (Rolls) 277 Glendore..was first a prentise at Cort, and than a Swyere of the Kingis hous. 1484 in J. S. Davies Hist. Southampton (1883) 474 There was ayenst us ij sergeauntez and iiij prentez. 1530 Palsgr. 258/1 Prentyce in lawe a lerned man: they [French] use no suche order. |
† 3. fig. = apprentice n. 3. Obs.
| 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. i. xvi. 47 He shal not be noo prentiz..in puttyng his oost in fayre ordenance. 1549 Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. Gal. 8 Assone as..I became prentice to the spiritual lawe of fayth. a 1586 Sidney Astr. & Stella lxx, Sonets be not bound prentise to annoy. |
4. attrib. and Comb., as prentice-boy, prentice-girl, prentice-lad, prentice-player, prentice-years; often implying inexperience as of a novice or beginner, as prentice ear, prentice hand, prentice stroke, prentice work; prentice-like adj.
| 1594 Nashe Unfort. Trav. Wks. (Grosart) V. 63 Did neuer vnlouing seruant so prentiselike obey his neuer pleased mistres. 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iv. Handicrafts 596 My Prentice ear doth oft reverberate. 1633 P. Fletcher Pisc. Ecl. ii. xi, When Thelgon here had spent his prentise-yeares. 1666 Pepys Diary 3 Sept., Saying that she was not a 'prentice girl, to ask leave every time she goes abroad. 1745 De Foe's Eng. Tradesman v. (1841) I. 32 There is nobody to serve but a prentice-boy or two. 1784 Burns Green grow the Rashes v, Her prentice han' she tried on man, An' then she made the lasses, O. 1839 C. J. Lever Confessions H. Lorrequer vi. 47 A red-hot orangeman,..vice-chairman of the ‘'Prentice Boys’. 1849 Clough Dipsychus ii. iv. 74 In the deft trick Of prentice-handling to forget great art. 1852 Dickens Bleak Ho. (1853) i. 1 Fog cruelly pinching the toes and fingers of his shivering little 'prentice boy on deck. 1860 Motley Netherl. I. 212 There was likely to be no prentice-work. 1881 ‘Mark Twain’ Prince & Pauper xxii. 269 His frantic and lubberly 'prentice-work found but a poor market for itself. 1898 Prentice hand [see eleven a. 2 c]. 1907 ‘Mark Twain’ Christian Sci. ii. iii. 127 They seem to me to prove the presence of the 'prentice hand. 1963 Times 7 May 8/7 How fine it would be to hear Sir John Gielgud on a stage where Edmund Kean was a prentice player. 1975 Times Lit. Suppl. 29 Aug. 963/1 It is unfair to print such academic prentice-work cheek by jowl with the work of experienced professionals. 1980 Times 12 Jan. 10/6 Breaded scallops and fragile wun-tun came from an expert, not a prentice, hand. |
▪ II. ˈprentice, v. Now arch. or dial.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. = apprentice v.
| 1598 Marston Sco. Villanie ii. ix. G viij, But when to seruile imitatorship Some spruce Athenian pen is prentizèd, Tis worse then Apish. 1608 Day Law Trickes i. ii, Thou wouldst not prentise thy affections Nor tie thy fortunes to a strangers loue. 1716 Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) V. 278 His Father was a Bookseller in Oxford, prenticed to old Hen. Davies. 1896 A. E. Housman Shropshire Lad xlvii, 'Prenticed to my father's trade. |