Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To be fortunate or successful, especially in terms of one's finances; thrive.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To be prosperous or successful; succeed; thrive; advance or improve in any good thing: said of persons.
  • To be in a successful state: turn out fortunalely or happily: said of affairs, business, and the like.
  • To increase in size; grow.
  • To make prosperous; favor; promote the success of.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To favor; to render successful.
  • intransitive verb To be successful; to succeed; to be fortunate or prosperous; to thrive; to make gain.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To grow; to increase.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To favor; to render successful.
  • verb To be successful; to succeed; to be fortunate or prosperous; to thrive; to make gain.
  • verb To grow; to increase.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make steady progress; be at the high point in one's career or reach a high point in historical significance or importance

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English prosperen, from Old French prosperer, from Latin prosperāre, to render fortunate, from prosperus, favorable; see spē- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

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  • And he said unto me, The LORD, before whom I walk, will send his angel with thee, and prosper thy way; and thou shalt take a wife for my son of my kindred, and of my father's house:

    December 23, 2006

  • And I came this day unto the well, and said, O LORD God of my master Abraham, if now thou do prosper my way which I go:

    December 23, 2006

  • Hmmmm.

    December 26, 2008

  • "live long and prosper" - spocks last words

    December 6, 2010