prole

Noun

prole (plural proles)

1. (informal) A member of the proletariat; a proletarian.
2. (informal) A pleb (ordinary person).

Verb

prole (third-person singular simple present proles, present participle proling, simple past and past participle proled)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To prowl; to proll.
   • 1652, Thomas Fitzherbert, chapter VIII, in A Treatise Concerning Policy and Religion, page 57:

     […] for he ordained, […] and that boyes and children ſhould have ſo little allowed them to eat, that they ſhould be forced to prole, and ſteal for their better proviſion, to make them thereby the more induſtrious, nimble, and quick of ſpirit, […]

   • 1766, Thomas Sadler, “The Peddlar. A Tale.”, in Poems on various subjects. To which is added, The merry miller: or, The country-man's ramble to London, a farce, page 116:

     But I will not ſuch Journies take, / To dig and prole in vain: / For was I to dig twenty Weeks, / Without might come again.

   • 1873, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, “"Some Innocents 'Scape Not The Thunderbol."” (chapter XLIV), in To the Bitter End, John Maxwell and Co., page 351:

     […] and Joseph went proling about after dark with his gun—and took and shot him!

   • 1903, George Carew, edited by Ernest George Atkinson, Calendar of the State Papers relating to Ireland, of the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth. 1600 March-October, section 108, page 391:

     "This summer, by reason of continual employment abroad in service, not having leisure to prole for hawks, I cannot make that present unto you as I desired. […] ”

Related terms

• proletari
• prolífer
• prolific

Related terms

• proletario
• prolifico