practice

n.

1. A customary action

   habit, usage, use, wont; see custom 2, tradition 1.

2. A method

   mode, manner, fashion; see method 2, system 2.

3. Educational repetition

   exercise, drill, repetition, iteration, rehearsal, recitation, preparation, study, discipline, application, training, workout, prepping*.

4. A practitioner's custom

   work, patients, clients, clientele, professional business. See syn. study at habit, practice, habit, practice,

   v.

1. To seek improvement through repetition

   drill, train, exercise, study, rehearse, repeat, recite, iterate, go over, run through, keep in practice, work at, accustom oneself, habituate oneself, prepare, warm up, work out, polish up*, sharpen up*, woodshed*, build up*. *

2. To employ one's professional skill

   function, work at, follow, put into effect, hang out one's shingle, employ oneself in, practice medicine, practice law.

practice implies repeated performance for the purpose of learning or acquiring proficiency he practiced on the violin every day, practice makes perfect; exercise implies putting into active use to exercise one's wits and often refers to activity, esp. of a systematic, formal kind, that trains or develops the body or mind gymnastic exercises; drill suggests disciplined group training in which something is taught by constant repetition to drill a squad, an arithmetic drill