prestigious, practising juggling or legerdemain, deceptive, illusory; ‘That inchantresse . . . by prestigious trickes in sorcerie’, Dekker, Whore of Babylon (Wks. 173, ii. 195); ‘Prestigious guiles’, Heywood, Dial. 18 (Minerva), vi. 250. Late L. praestigiosus, full of deceitful tricks; praestigium, an illusion, praestigiae, juggler’s tricks; cp. F. prestiges, ‘deceits, impostures, juggling tricks’ (Cotgr.). See Dict. (s.v. Prestige).
pretence, pretense, an assertion of a right; a claim; ‘Spirits that in our just pretenses arm’d Fell with us’, Milton, P. L. ii. 825; an expressed aim, intention, purpose or design, Two Gent. iii. 1. 47; Winter’s Tale, iii. 2. 18.
pretenced, pretensed, intended, purposed, designed. More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 8). Late L. praetensus, for praetentus, pp. of praetendere.
pretend, to stretch something over a person for defence; ‘Who . . . his target alwayes over her pretended’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 11. 19; to put forward, set forth, ‘To that wench I pretend honest love’, Middleton, Changeling, iv. 2. 91. L. praetendere, to stretch forth.
pretor, one holding high civil office, a name for the Lord Mayor of London. Westward Ho, i. 1 (Justiniano); Webster, Monuments of Honour, § 1. Med. L. praetor, ‘urbis praefectus’ (Ducange); ‘Meyr, maior, pretor’ (Prompt. EETS. 284); cp. Cath. Angl. 225.
prevent, to anticipate. Merch. Ven. i. 1. 61; Twelfth Nt. iii. 1. 94; Bible, Ps. xviii. 5; cxix. 148; 1 Thess. iv. 15, &c. See Bible Word-Book.
preving, preeving, proving, trial. Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 1366. See [prieve].
prick, to spur; hence, to ride. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 1; prickant, riding along, Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, ii. 2 (Ralph).
prick, the pin, or peg originally fixed in the very centre of the white, or circular mark upon the butt shot at by archers. Also called the pin, or clout. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 99; at the prickes, beside the butts, id., p. 98.
prick, the highest point, apex, acme; ‘To pricke of highest praise’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 1; ‘The hygh prycke of vertue’, Udall, Erasmus, Paraph. Matt. iii. 30; phr. prick and praise, very high praise, Middleton, Family of Love, ii. 4 (Mrs. G.); ‘She had the prick and praise for a prettie wench’, London Prodigal, iv. 1. 15.