rehearse
verbUK [ɹɪˈhɜːs] · US /ɹɪˈhɝs/
Etymology From Middle English rehersen, from Anglo-Norman reherser (“to repeat word-for-word”).
1
To repeat, as what has been already said; to tell over again; to recite.
- There’s no need to rehearse the same old argument; we’ve heard it before, and we all agree.
2
To narrate; to relate; to tell; to recount.
- The witness rehearsed the events of the night before for the listening detectives.
3
Ambitransitive To practise by recitation or repetition in private for experiment and improvement, prior to a public representation, especially in theater.
- The main actors spent on average two hours a day rehearsing before the first night.
- The lawyer advised her client to rehearse her testimony before the trial date.
2 more examples
- In sober mornings, do not thou reherse / The holy incantation of a verse ...1648, Robert Herrick, “When he would have his verses read”, in Hesperides:
- I ſuppoſe vve ſhall hardly Rehearſe the Comedy this Morning; for the Author vvas Arreſted as he vvas going home from King's Coffee-houſe; and, as I heard, it vvas for upvvards of Four Pound: I ſuppoſe he vvill hardly get Bail.1736 March 16 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Henry Fielding, Pasquin. A Dramatick Satire on the Times: […], London: […] J. Watts […], published 1736, →OCLC, Act I, page 1:
4
Entertainment, Lifestyle, Theater To cause to rehearse; to instruct by rehearsal.
- The director rehearsed the cast incessantly in the days leading up to opening night, and as a result they were tired and cranky when it arrived.
- He […] has been rehearsed by Madame Defarge as to his having seen Her […]1859, Charles Dickens, “Darkness”, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book III (The Track of a Storm), page 231:
1 more example
- It was plain that he'd been rehearsed a lot, but he wasn't letter-perfect by any manner of means.1916 March 11, Charles E. Van Loan, “His Folks”, in Saturday Evening Post:
5
To contrive and carefully prepare (a story, etc.) to offer consistency.
- The Crown argued that the accused had rehearsed her story.
- Derived terms
- misrehearse, rehearsable, rehearsal, rehearsed, rehearser