prefer

verb

Etymology: From Middle English preferren, from Anglo-Norman preferer, from Latin praeferō. Displaced native Old English foresettan and foreberan. Doublet of prelate. See also infer, relate and refer, delate and defer, as well as collate and confer among others.

1. To be in the habit of choosing something rather than something else; to favor; to like better.

   “I prefer tea to coffee.”

   “I'd prefer it if you didn't do it.”

2. To advance, promote (someone or something).

   “So ſhall you haue a ſhorter iourney to your deſires, by the meanes I ſhall then haue to preferre them. And the impediment moſt profitably remoued, without the which there were no expectation of our proſperitie.”

   “And the maiden pleaſed him, and ſhe obtained kindneſſe of him,[…], and hee preferred her and her maids, vnto the beſt place of the houſe of the women.”

3. To present or submit (something) to an authority (now usually in "to prefer charges").

   “[…], let him go, And preſently preferre his ſuite to Cæſar.”

   “At length the Maroons, who were delighted to have him with them, became diſ­con­tent­ed with his abſence, and for ſeveral years, during the ſeſſions of the Houſe of Aſſembly, preferred repeated complaints againſt him.”

4. To put forward for acceptance; to introduce, recommend (to).

   “one Master David Hume, who making some use of his purse, gave him Letters to his friends in Scotland to preferre him to King Iames.”

   “Such were the arguments which my will boldly preferred to my conscience, as coin which ought to be current; and which conscience, like a grumbling shopkeeper, was contented to accept,[…].”