1. practice (a play, piece of music, or other work) for later public performance: "we were rehearsing a play"Similarpreparepracticetry outread throughsing throughwalk throughrun through/overgo overinformal:run downpracticehave a practice sessionpreparehave a trial performancego through one's paces
Word OriginMiddle English (in the sense ‘repeat aloud’): from Old French rehercier, perhaps from re- ‘again’ + hercer ‘to harrow’, from herse ‘harrow’ (see hearse).