also apprize. [f. (in 17th c.) F. apprendre (OF. aprendre) to teach, inform (pa. pple. appris, -ise), on analogy of comprise, surprise, and Fr. comprendre, surprendre. A(p)prendre:—L. adprendĕre:—adprehendĕre ‘lay hold of,’ had passed from the sense of ‘lay hold with the mind, learn,’ to ‘teach, inform’: see APPREHEND. (The prec. sb. was obs. bef. 1500, and had nothing to do with the formation of this vb.)]
1. To impart knowledge or information to; give formal notice to; inform, acquaint.
1694. Ld. Delamer, Wks., 41. Though the King of England may be never so well apprized in the use of them.
1741. Richardson, Pamela, I. (1824), 52. I hope she has had the duty to apprise you of her intrigue with the young clergyman.
1801. Mar. Edgeworth, Angelina, iv. (1832), 61. Miss Hodges is above stairs—she shall be apprized directly.
1869. Gladstone, Juv. Mundi, xv. § 1. 519. Telemachos apprises Menelaos that Ithaca is a goat-feeding island.
b. Hence in pass. To be informed or aware, to know.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 518, ¶ 9. You must be extremely well apprised, that there is a very close correspondence.
a. 1797. H. Walpole, George II. (1847), I. iv. 89. The little Princes, less apprized of his history … talked a good deal to him.
1819. Scott, Ivanhoe, I. vi. 88. The adjoining cell, as the reader is apprised, was occupied by Gurth.
c. refl. (= Fr. s’apprendre.)
a. 1719. Addison, Chr. Relig., VI. i. The learned Pagans might apprise themselves from oral information.
2. To give formal notice of, notify, advise. rare.
1817. Byron, Works, IV. 71. Morlands have not yet written to my bankers, apprising the payment of your balances.
