practice
Noun
(practices)
Repetition of an activity to improve skill.
- He will need lots of practice with the lines before he performs them.
(uncountable) The ongoing pursuit of a craft or profession, particularly in medicine or the fine arts.
(countable) A place where a professional service is provided, such as a general practice.
- She ran a thriving medical practice .
The observance of religious duties that a church requires of its members.
A customary action, habit, or behavior; a manner or routine.
- It is the usual practice of employees there to wear neckties only when meeting with customers.
- It is good practice to check each door and window before leaving.
Actual operation or experiment, in contrast to theory.
- That may work in theory, but will it work in practice ?
(legal) The form, manner, and order of conducting and carrying on suits and prosecutions through their various stages, according to the principles of law and the rules laid down by the courts.
- This firm of solicitors is involved in family law practice .
Skilful or artful management; dexterity in contrivance or the use of means; stratagem; artifice.
* Sir Philip Sidney
- He sought to have that by practice which he could not by prayer.
- (Francis Bacon)
(math) A easy and concise method of applying the rules of arithmetic to questions which occur in trade and business.
Usage notes
British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand English distinguish between practice” (a noun) and ”practise (a verb), analogously with advice/advise. In American English, practice is commonly used for both forms, and this is also common in Canada.
Synonyms
* (improvement of skill) rehearsal, drill, exercise, training, workout
* (customary action) custom, habit, routine, wont, wone
* fashion, pattern, trick, way, dry run, trial
Derived terms
* general practice
* overpractice
* practice makes perfect
* practice what one preaches
* put into practice
* sharp practice
Verb
(practic)
(US) To repeat (an activity) as a way of improving one’s skill in that activity.
- You should practice playing piano every day.
(US) To repeat an activity in this way.
- If you want to speak French well, you need to practice .
(US) To perform or observe in a habitual fashion.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April
, author=John T. Jost
, title=Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)?
, volume=100, issue=2, page=162
, magazine=(American Scientist)
citation
, passage=He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record. With this biological framework in place, Corning endeavors to show that the capitalist system as currently practiced in the United States and elsewhere is manifestly unfair.}}
- They gather to practice religion every Saturday.
(US) To pursue (a career, especially law, fine art or medicine).
- She practiced law for forty years before retiring.
(intransitive, archaic, US) To conspire.
Usage notes
* In sense “to repeat an activity as a way improving one’s skill” this is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) . See
Derived terms
* practiced
* practicing
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service
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) (m) (French: (m)), from the verb (m) < (etyl) (m), from .
Noun
(en noun)
An act of being of assistance to someone.
- I say I did him a service by ending our relationship – now he can freely pursue his career.
* , chapter=4
, title= Mr. Pratt’s Patients
, passage=Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring’s fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt’s boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.}}
(economics) The practice of providing such a service as economic activity.
-
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
, volume=189, issue=2, page=27, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= The tao of tech
, passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you “stay up to date with what your friends are doing”,
(computing) A function that is provided by one program or machine for another.
-
The state of being subordinate to or employed by an individual or group
-
The military.
-
A set of dishes or utensils.
-
(sports) The act of initially starting, or serving, the ball in play in tennis, volleyball, and other games.
-
A religious rite or ritual.
* , chapter=5
, title= The Mirror and the Lamp
, passage=Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers’ desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys’ faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.}}
-
(legal) The serving, or delivery, of a summons or writ.
* 1668 July 3, , “Thomas Rue contra” Andrew Hou?toun” in ”The Deci?ions of the Lords of Council & Se??ion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 548 :
- He Su?pends on the?e Rea?ons, that Thomas Rue” had granted a general Di?charge to ”Adam Mu?het”, who was his Conjunct, and ”correus debendi”, after the alleadged Service , which Di?charged ”Mu?het”, and con?equently ”Houstoun his Partner.
-
(Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, West Bank) A taxi shared among unrelated passengers, each of whom pays part of the fare; often, it has a fixed route between cities.
A musical composition for use in churches.
(obsolete) Profession of respect; acknowledgment of duty owed.
* Shakespeare
- Pray, do my service to his majesty.
(nautical) The materials used for serving a rope, etc., such as spun yarn and small lines.
Usage notes
In British English, the indefinite article “a” is often used with “good service”, as in “A good service is operating on all London Underground lines,” while this is not used in American English.
Antonyms
* (action or work that is produced and consumed) good
* capital
Derived terms
* accept service
* advisory service
* all-up service
* answering service
* bond service
* church service
* civil service
* client service
* community service
* curb service
* customer service
* debt service
* denial of service
* denture service
* dinner service
* diplomatic service
* disservice
* divine service
* ecological service
* emergency service
* escort service
* extension service
* eyeservice
* fanservice
* fee-for-service
* food service
* foreign service
* full-service
* health service
* ill service
* in service
* lip service
* memorial service
* military service
* multiservice
* national service
* online service
* out of service
* personal service
* postal service
* power service
* prayer service
* public service
* quality of service
* room service
* secret service
* Secret Service
* selective service
* self-service
* service area
* service book
* service break
* service bureau
* service call
* service cap
* service ceiling
* service center
* service charge
* service club
* service contract
* service court
* service dog
* service door
* service elevator
* service line
* service loop
* service mark
* service module
* service of process
* service pipe
* service plaza
* service provider
* service road
* service station
* service stripe
* serviceman
* servicewoman
* shared service
* silent service
* silver service
* social service
* substituted service
* table service
* tea service
* unservice
* unserviced
* web service
* wire service
* yeoman’s service
Verb
(servic)
To serve.
- They service the customer base.
To perform maintenance.
- He is going to service the car.
(transitive, agriculture, euphemistic) To inseminate through sexual intercourse
(vulgar) To perform a sexual act.
- He was going to service her.
Descendants
* Japanese:
* Korean:
Etymology 2
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