Requiring of the city a prest of six thousand marks.1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC:
3
A tax or duty
4
Obsolete A sum of money paid to a soldier or sailor upon enlistment
5
Law A duty in money formerly paid by the sheriff on his account in the exchequer, or for money left or remaining in his hands.
the same tayles soe hereafter there to be levyed and striken, shalbe delyvered unto everye of the same Sheriffes[…]without prest or other chardge to be sett upon them for the same.1548, King Edward VI, Act 2:
False knave ready prest, All safe is the best1557 February 13 (Gregorian calendar), Thomas Tusser, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, London: […] Richard Tottel, →OCLC; republished London: […] Robert Triphook, […], and William Sancho, […], 1810, →OCLC:
The fauconer then was prest, Came runnynge with a dow, And cryed, ‘Stow, stow, stow!’ But she wold not bow.c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 63, lines 71–74: