emprise

noun

em·prise em-ˈprīz

Synonyms of emprise next

: an adventurous, daring, or chivalric enterprise

Did you know?

Someone who engages in emprises undertakes much, and the word became established in English with the chivalrous undertakings of brave knights. Fourteenth-century author Geoffrey Chaucer used emprise to describe one such knight in "The Franklin's Tale" (one of the stories in The Canterbury Tales): "There was a knight that loved and went through pains / To serve a lady in his best way; / And many a labor, many a great emprise, / He wrought for his lady before she was won."

Examples of emprise in a Sentence

he always seems to be having the sort of high emprise that most of us experience only in our dreams

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, undertaking, from Anglo-French, from emprendre to undertake, from Vulgar Latin *imprehendere, from Latin in- + prehendere to seize — more at get

First Known Use

13th century, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of emprise was in the 13th century

See more words from the same century