Definition of "prest" [prest]

• Simple past tense and past participle of press. (verb)
• A payment of wages in advance (noun)
• A loan or advance (of money) (noun)
• A tax or duty (noun)
• A sum of money paid to a soldier or sailor upon enlistment (noun)

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• "By some strange irony of circumstance there happened to be in the English language a word“pressed”which tallied almost exactly in pronunciation with the old French word prest, so long employed, as we have seen, to differentiate from his fellows the man who, by the devious means we have here described, was made “ready” for the sea service."
• "To "prest" a man meant to enlist him by means of what was technically known as "prest" money -- "prest" being the English equivalent of the obsolete French _prest_, now"
• ""prest" money stood for what is nowadays, in both services, commonly termed the "king's shilling," and the man who, either voluntarily or under duress, accepted or received that shilling at the recruiter's hands, was said to be "prested" or "prest.""