- practice
- noun
1 A SKILLa) (U) regular activity that you do in order to improve a skill: It takes hours of practice to learn to play the guitar. | With a little more practice you should be able to pass your test.b) (C) a period of time you spend training to improve your skill in doing something: choir practice | We have two rugby practices a week.2 in practice used when saying what really happens rather than what should happen or what people think happens: In practice women receive much lower wages than their male colleagues.3 CUSTOM (C) something that you do often because of your religion or your society's tradition: religious beliefs and practices | the practice of doing sth: The Navy has abandoned the practice of serving rum to the men.—see habit4 sth done often (C, U) something that people do often, especially a particular way of doing something: the widespread practice of under-declaring taxable income | unsafe sexual practices | dangerous working practices5 DOCTOR/LAWYER (C) the work of a doctor or lawyer or the place where they work: medical/legal practice: Mary Beth had a busy legal practice in Los Angeles.—see also: general practice, private practice6 common/standard/general/normal practice the usual and accepted way of doing something: In Scandinavian countries it is common practice for the husband to stay at home to look after the baby.7 good/bad practice an example of a good or very bad way of doing something, especially in a particular job: It's not considered good practice to reveal clients' names.8 be out of practice to have not done something for a long time so that you are unable to do it well9 be in practice if you are in practice you have practised something regularly and are able to do it well10 put sth into practice if you put an idea, plan etc into practice, you start to use it and see if it is effective: The hard part is putting it all into practice.11 practice makes perfect used to say that if you do an activity regularly, you will become very good at it
Longman dictionary of contemporary English. 2004.