preach

From Middle English prechen, from Old French prëechier, precchier (Modern French prêcher), from Latin praedicāre, present active infinitive of praedicō.

The Latin word is also the source of Old English predician (“to preach”), Saterland Frisian preetje (“to preach”), West Frisian preekje (“to preach”), Dutch preken (“to preach”), German Low German preken (“to preach”), German predigen (“to preach”), Danish prædike (“to preach”), Swedish predika (“to preach”), Icelandic prédika (“to preach”).

• IPA^(key): /pɹiːt͡ʃ/
• Rhymes: -iːtʃ

preach (third-person singular simple present preaches, present participle preaching, simple past and past participle preached or (nonstandard) praught)

1. (intransitive) To give a sermon.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 3, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”  He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.

   A learned local Muslim used to preach in the small mosque every Friday.

2. (transitive) To proclaim by public discourse; to utter in a sermon or a formal religious harangue.
   • Bible, Isa. lxi. 1

     The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek.

3. (transitive) To advise or recommend earnestly.
   • Shakespeare

     My master preaches patience to him.

4. (transitive) To teach or instruct by preaching; to inform by preaching.
   • Southey

     The Spirits of the Dead, / Quitting their mortal mansion, enter not, / As ye are preached, their final seat / Of bliss, or bale.

5. (intransitive) To give advice in an offensive or obtrusive manner.

• preacher
• preachy

• practice what one preaches
• preach to the choir
• preach to the converted

• praught

preach (plural preaches)

1. (obsolete) A religious discourse.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Hooker to this entry?)

• eparch, pearch