emprise

plural emprises · alternative obsolete emprize

1. archaicAn enterprise or endeavor, especially a quest or adventure.

   the deeds of love and high emprise

   1833, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Coplas de Manrique

   3 more examples

   [N]oble minds of yore allyed were, / In braue poursuit of cheualrous emprize, / That none did others safety despize […]

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

   And as he is, who unwills what he willed, / And by new thoughts doth his intention change, / So that from his design he quite withdraws, / Such I became, upon that dark hillside, / Because, in thinking, I consumed the emprise, / Which was so very prompt in the beginning.

   1867, Dante Alighieri, “Canto II”, in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, transl., The Divine Comedy, volume I (Inferno), Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 8, lines 37–42

   Nothing short of an imperative sense of duty could tempt me to set forth on that most perilous emprise, a discussion of the American language.

   1900, William Archer, America To-Day, Observations & Reflections, page 181

2. archaicThe qualities which prompt one to undertake difficult and dangerous exploits; chivalric prowess.

   I love thy courage yet, and bold emprise; / But here thy sword can do thee little stead.

   Comus

   1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC

present singular third person emprises · participle present emprising · participle past emprised · past emprised · alternative obsolete emprize

1. obsoleteTo undertake.