preach

«preach» in Mova's school dictionary: To give a religious talk, called a sermon, to people… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (preach, preaches, preached, preaching)

meaning for a pupil

1) (church) To give a religious talk, called a sermon, to people, usually in a church. tree →

2) To tell others strongly that something is right and that they should do it: «preach kindness». tree →

3) (informal, disapproving) To give advice or tell people what is right in an annoying, bossy way: «Stop preaching at me!» tree →

sense in the lessons

In church life the priest, minister or pastor preaches a sermon; in the Bible Jesus and the apostles preach the good news. In everyday life «preach» can be a complaint about someone lecturing others. Phrases: «preach a sermon», «preach the gospel», «practise what you preach» (do what you tell others to do), «preach to the converted» (tell people what they already believe), «preaching to the choir».

examples

• The vicar preached about forgiveness on Sunday. tree →
• Jesus preached to crowds by the lake. tree →
• Mum always says we should practise what we preach. tree →
• Don't preach at me, I know I made a mistake. tree →
• The coach preaches teamwork every training session. tree →
• John the Baptist preached in the desert. tree →
• Telling our class to recycle was preaching to the converted. tree →
• They were going to hear the clergyman preach. tree →

note

Regular verb: preached, preaching. A person who preaches is a preacher; the talk is a sermon. «Preach to» someone, «preach about» something. In the informal sense it is often unkind, like «lecture».

In the corpora

• Jonah preached, the whole city of Nineveh repented, and God spared it; Jonah was angry about this.
• St Francis of Assisi called animals his brothers and sisters and, the story says, preached to the birds.
• 'Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and preach toward the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel;
• 'Preach ye not', they preach; 'They shall not preach of these things, that they shall not take shame.'
• I have preached righteousness in the great congregation, lo, I did not refrain my lips; O LORD, Thou knowest.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «preach» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.