prose — English Dictionary

Noun

1. Language, particularly written language, not intended as poetry.

   Usage

   • Uncountable
   • usually

   Examples

   Though known mostly for her prose, she also produced a small body of excellent poems.

   More examples (1)

   ...Or if Sion Hill Delight thee more, and Siloa's Brook that flow’d Faft by the Oracle of God; I thence Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song, That with no middle flight intends to soar Above th’ Ionian Mounts while it pursues Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime...

2. Language which evinces little imagination or animation; dull and commonplace discourse.

   Usage

   • Uncountable
   • usually

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   ...the vehicle is plodding prose, but the effect is none the less poignant. And in regard to this I may say that in a hundred places in Trollope the extremity of pathos is reached by the homeliest means.

3. A hymn with no regular meter, sometimes introduced into the Mass.

   Usage

   • Uncountable
   • usually

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   Proses are parts of the Office of the Mass which are sung just before the Gospel, upon great Festivals. The French also call those Rhythmical Hymns Proses, which are sung in their Offices in the Church of Rome, in which Rhime only, and not Quantity of Syllables, is observed.

Verb

1. To write or repeat in a dull, tedious, or prosy way.

   Examples

   Pray, do not prose, good Ethelbert, but speak; What is your purpose?

   More examples (1)

   Already he felt himself near to being a celebrity. He had astonished Eton. That was a good beginning. Papa might prose, knowing, of course, nothing of the poetry of caricature, of the wild joys and the laurels that crown the whimsical. So while Mr. Lane hunted adjectives, and ran sad-sounding and damnatory substantives to earth, Eustace hugged himself, and secretly chuckled over his pilgrim's progress towards the pages of Vanity Fair.

Noun

1. ordinary writing as distinguished from verse

   Broader terms

   writing styleliterary genregenre

2. matter of fact, commonplace, or dull expression

   Broader terms

   expressive stylestyle