preach

Formspreaches, preaching, preached

Pluralpreaches

1. 1
   verbintransitive

   To deliver a sermon to a congregation, especially during a religious service.

   The bishop will preach at the cathedral tomorrow morning.

   Ministers who preach every week often reuse older material.

   Note

   The core sense carries the word's history: Middle English prechen, through Old French from Latin praedicō, "to proclaim, announce", the same Latin verb that gives English predicate. Used without an object, it leans on prepositions. A minister preaches from a text (from the Book of Psalms) and on a theme (on "The Inner Life"). The past form is preached; praught exists only as a nonstandard variant.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To hand out unwanted advice in a moralizing, overbearing manner.

   He'll preach to anyone who will listen about the evils of sugar.

   I wish she wouldn't preach at me every time I run late.

   Similarmoralize, lecture, sermonize, pontificate, hector

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To advocate or recommend something earnestly and insistently.

   Good coaches preach discipline above raw talent.

   He preached moderation to anyone who would listen.

   Similaradvocate, urge, promote, champion, stress

   Note

   What gets recommended can now be a virtue or a habit rather than a creed. Shakespeare already writes it this way in The Comedie of Errors (c. 1594): "My Master preaches patience to him." The pattern is still preach something to someone. Unlike the moralizing, obtrusive sense, it implies earnestness without any complaint about the speaker.

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To proclaim a religious message through public discourse, as in a sermon.

   Evangelists preach salvation to vast outdoor audiences.

   She preached repentance from the pulpit every Sunday.

   Similarproclaim, teach, promulgate, announce

   Note

   Here the message itself becomes the object: one preaches good tidings, salvation, repentance. The Bible translated by William Whittingham and others in 1560 has "sent me to preach good tidings unto the poor," with the hearers introduced by unto, where modern English uses to. Of all the senses, this one sits closest to the Latin "proclaim" behind delivering a sermon.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To teach or instruct an audience through sermons and religious discourse.

   Reformers preach literacy as a moral duty to their followers.

   The chaplain preached self-discipline to the new cadets.

   Similarteach, instill, inculcate

   Note

   The object slot can also hold the people being taught, not the message. Robert Southey's Thalaba the Destroyer (1801) puts it in the passive: "As falsely ye are preached," meaning "as you have been falsely taught." To tell this sense from proclaiming a message, ask what follows the verb. Preach the gospel names the message; preach a crowd names the audience.

6. 6
   interjectionslang

   Said to express enthusiastic agreement, as if urging the speaker to keep going.

   Preach! That's exactly what the whole team needed to hear.

   She nodded hard and called out, "Preach," the moment he named the real problem.

   Similarchurch

   Note

   A one-word reply that treats the speaker as a preacher worth urging on. It usually stands alone, right after a line the listener applauds: "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime!" : "Preach!" The word church is used the same way. It is slang, so it suits casual talk and is out of place in formal writing.

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