Adjacent Words

Parry definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PAR'RY, v.t.
1. In fencing, to ward off; to stop or to put or turn by; as, to parry a thrust.
2. To ward off; to turn aside; to prevent a blow from taking effect.
3. To avoid; to shift off.
The French government has parried the payment of our claims.
PAR'RY, v.i. To ward off; to put by thrusts or strokes; to fence.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: (fencing) blocking a lunge or deflecting it with a circular motion of the sword
2: a return punch (especially by a boxer) [syn: counterpunch, parry, counter] v
1: impede the movement of (an opponent or a ball); "block an attack" [syn: parry, block, deflect]
2: avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing (duties, questions, or issues); "He dodged the issue"; "she skirted the problem"; "They tend to evade their responsibilities"; "he evaded the questions skillfully" [syn: hedge, fudge, evade, put off, circumvent, parry, elude, skirt, dodge, duck, sidestep]

Merriam Webster's

verb (parried; parrying) Etymology: probably from French parez, imperative of parer to parry, from Old Occitan parar, from Latin parare to prepare — more at pare Date: 1672 intransitive verb 1. to ward off a weapon or blow 2. to evade or turn aside something transitive verb 1. to ward off (as a blow) 2. to evade especially by an adroit answer <parried the question> • parry noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v. & n. --v.tr. (-ies, -ied) 1 avert or ward off (a weapon or attack), esp. with a countermove. 2 deal skilfully with (an awkward question etc.). --n. (pl. -ies) an act of parrying. Etymology: prob. repr. F parez imper. of parer f. It. parare ward off

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Parry Par"ry, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Parried; p. pr. & vb. n. Parrying.] [F. par['e], p. p. of parer. See Pare, v. t.] 1. To ward off; to stop, or to turn aside; as, to parry a thrust, a blow, or anything that means or threatens harm. --Locke. Vice parries wide The undreaded volley with a sword of straw. --Cowper. 2. To avoid; to shift or put off; to evade. The French government has parried the payment of our claims. --E. Everett.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Parry Par"ry, v. i. To ward off, evade, or turn aside something, as a blow, argument, etc. --Locke.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Parry Par"ry, n.; pl. Parries. A warding off of a thrust or blow, as in sword and bayonet exercises or in boxing; hence, figuratively, a defensive movement in debate or other intellectual encounter.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(parries, parrying, parried) 1. If you parry a question or argument, you cleverly avoid answering it or dealing with it. In an awkward press conference, Mr King parried questions on the allegations. = counter VERB: V n 2. If you parry a blow from someone who is attacking you, you push aside their arm or weapon so that you are not hurt. I did not want to wound him, but to restrict myself to defence, to parry his attacks... I parried, and that's when my sword broke. = deflect VERB: V n, V

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. 1. Ward off, turn aside, prevent, avert. 2. Shift off, avoid, evade.

Moby Thesaurus

about the bush, answer, answer conclusively, argue down, around the bush, back and fill, beat about, beat around, beat off, beg the question, bicker, block, boggle, cavil, check, choplogic, confound, confute, contradict, controvert, counter, crush, defeat, demolish, deny, dismiss, dispose of, dodge, drive back, duck, equivocate, evade, evade the issue, fence, fend, fend off, finish, floor, hedge, hem and haw, hinder, hold at bay, hold off, hum and haw, keep at bay, keep off, mince the truth, mince words, mystify, nitpick, nonplus, obscure, obstruct, overthrow, overturn, overwhelm, palter, pick nits, prevaricate, pull away, pull back, push back, pussyfoot, put back, put off, put to silence, quibble, rebuff, rebut, recoil, reduce to silence, refute, repel, repulse, settle, sheer off, shift, shift off, shrink, shuffle, shut up, shy, shy away, shy off, sidestep, silence, smash all opposition, split hairs, squash, squelch, stave off, step aside, stop, subvert, swerve, tergiversate, turn aside, undermine, upset, waffle, ward off, weasel