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Behave vs Practise - What's the difference?

behave | practise |

As verbs the difference between behave and practise

is that behave is to conduct (oneself) well, or in a given way while practise is to repeat as a way of improving one's skill in that activity.

behave

English

Verb

  • (label) To conduct (oneself) well, or in a given way.
  • * Bible, ii. 21
  • those that behaved themselves manfully
  • (label) To act, conduct oneself in a specific manner;
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-04-21, volume=411, issue=8884, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Subtle effects , passage=Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese, a silvery metal, began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated.}}
  • To conduct, manage, regulate (something).
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • He did behave his anger ere 'twas spent.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , II.iii:
  • who his limbs with labours, and his mind / Behaues with cares, cannot so easie mis.
  • (label) To act in a polite or proper way.
  • Derived terms

    * behave oneself

    practise

    English

    Alternative forms

    * practice (standard for noun but incorrect for verb outside US; almost universal for both in American English)

    Verb

    (practis)
  • (transitive, British, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) To repeat as a way of improving one's skill in that activity.
  • You should practise playing piano every day.
  • (intransitive, British, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) To repeat an activity in this way.
  • If you want to speak French well, you need to practise .
  • (transitive, British, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) To perform or observe in a habitual fashion.
  • They gather to practise religion every Saturday.
  • (transitive, British, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) To pursue (a career, especially law, fine art or medicine).
  • She practised law for forty years before retiring.
  • (intransitive, obsolete, British, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) To conspire.
  • To put into practice; to carry out; to act upon; to commit; to execute; to do.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Aught but Talbot's shadow whereon to practise your severity.''
  • * Alexander Pope
  • As this advice ye practise or neglect.
  • To make use of; to employ.
  • * Massinger
  • In malice to this good knight's wife, I practised Ubaldo and Ricardo to corrupt her.
  • To teach or accustom by practice; to train.
  • * Landor
  • In church they are taught to love God; after church they are practised to love their neighbour.

    Usage notes

    * In sense "to repeat an activity as a way improving one's skill" this is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) . See

    Derived terms

    * practised * practising

    Anagrams

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