prefer

Alternative forms

• præfer [16th-17th c.]
• preferre [14th-17th c.]

Etymology

From Middle English preferren, from Anglo-Norman preferer and Old French preferer, from Latin praeferō, praeferre. Displaced native Middle English "foresettan", and also native "foreberan".

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɹɪˈfɝ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɹɪˈfɜː/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)

Verb

prefer (third-person singular simple present prefers, present participle preferring, simple past and past participle preferred)

1. (transitive) To be in the habit of choosing something rather than something else; to favor; to like better. [from 14^thc.]

   I prefer tea to coffee.

   • c. 1607, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Act III, Scene 1,

     You that will be less fearful than discreet,

     That love the fundamental part of state

     More than you doubt the change on’t, that prefer

     A noble life before a long […]

   • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set (Project Gutenberg; EBook #14852), New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, published 1 February 2005 (Project Gutenberg version), OCLC 24962326:

     "My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects; […]."

2. (transitive, now dated) To advance, promote (someone or something). [from 14^thc.]
   • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, Othello, Act II, Scene 1,

     So shall you have a shorter journey to your desires by the means I shall then have to prefer them; and the impediment most profitably removed, without the which there were no expectation of our prosperity.

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Esther 2:9,

     And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him; […] and he preferred her and her maids unto the best place of the house of the women.

   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, (please specify |partition=1, 2, or 3):
     , II.3.2:

     Tiberius preferred many to honours in his time, because they were famous whoremasters and sturdy drinkers […].

   • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, p. 67,

     […] she was one of my Master’s Captives. For this Reason, I presume, it was, that she took so much Compassion upon me; considering herself a Slave in a strange Country, and only preferr’d to my Master’s Bed by Courtesy.

3. (transitive) To present or submit (something) to an authority (now usually in "to prefer charges"). [from 16^thc.]
   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene 1,

     […] Let him go,

     And presently prefer his suit to Caesar.

4. (obsolete, transitive) To put forward for acceptance; to introduce, recommend (to). [16^th-19^thc.]
   • 1630, John Smith, The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captaine Iohn Smith, London: Thomas Slater, Chapter 1, p. 2,

     one Master David Hume, who making some use of his purse, gave him Letters to his friends in Scotland to preferre him to King Iames.

   • 1817, Walter Scott, Rob Roy, Volume One, Chapter 17,

     Such were the arguments which my will boldly preferred to my conscience, as coin which ought to be current, and which conscience, like a grumbling shopkeeper, was contented to accept […].