I. prise BrE AmE British English , prize American English /praɪz/ verb [transitive always + adverb/preposition]
to move or lift something by pushing it away from something else:
I tried to prise the lid off.
prise something out of somebody ( also prise something from somebody ) phrasal verb
to get something such as information or money from someone when they do not want to give it to you:
I more or less had to prise it out of him.
II. prize 1 S2 W2 /praɪz/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Date: 1500-1600 ; Origin: prise , an earlier form of price ; ⇨ ↑ price 1 ]
1 . something that is given to someone who is successful in a competition, race, game of chance etc:
In this month’s competition you could win a prize worth £3,000.
The first prize has gone to Dr John Gentle.
prize for
The prize for best photography has been won by a young Dutch photographer.
Scientists from Oxford shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945.
The prizes are awarded (=given) every year to students who have shown original thinking in their work.
The total prize money was £30,000.
2 . something that is very valuable to you or that it is very important to have:
Fame was the prize.
3 . no prizes for guessing something spoken used to say that it is very easy to guess something:
No prizes for guessing what she was wearing.
• • •
COLLOCATIONS
■ verbs
▪ win a prize ( also take a prize )
She won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1938.
|
Ms Brolls also took the prize for best individual speaker.
▪ get a prize ( also receive a prize formal )
The winner gets a prize.
|
If your letter is published, you will receive a £5 prize.
▪ share a prize
They will share the first prize of £500.
▪ give (somebody) a prize ( also award (somebody) a prize formal )
A prize will be given for the best-decorated egg.
|
Four years later he was awarded the Erasmus Prize.
▪ a prize goes to somebody (=they get it)
The fiction prize goes to Carol Shields.
■ ADJECTIVES/NOUN + prize
▪ first/second etc prize
She won first prize in a poetry competition.
▪ the top prize
The film won the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival.
▪ a consolation prize (=one given to someone who has not won)
The runner-up will get a consolation prize of a camera.
▪ the booby prize (=one given as a joke to the person who comes last)
The cake I made for the competition was so bad I got the booby prize.
▪ a cash prize
There's a $5,000 cash prize for the winner.
■ prize + NOUN
▪ a prize winner
Congratulations to all the prize winners!
▪ prize money
The players are demanding an increase in prize money.
▪ a prize draw British English (=a competition in which people whose names or tickets are chosen by chance win prizes)
He won the car in a prize draw.
III. prize 2 BrE AmE adjective [only before noun]
1 . good enough to win a prize or having won a prize:
He has spent months cultivating what he hopes are prize flowers.
⇨ ↑ prize-winning
2 . very good or important:
The Picasso painting is a prize exhibit in the museum.
3 . a prize idiot/fool informal a complete idiot, fool etc
IV. prize 3 BrE AmE verb [transitive]
1 . to think that someone or something is very important or valuable:
He is someone who prizes truth and decency above all things.
The company’s shoes are highly prized by fashion conscious youngsters.
2 . the American spelling of ↑ prise