The word “pry” has a meaning of “inquiring too closely into a person’s private affairs” in the dictionary. Is “pry” used as this meaning in this sentence?
Native speaker’s answer
Rebecca
Your definition of pry is correct, but pry also means to open with difficulty. In this sentence, he is saying he cannot open the coconut with just his fingers. It's too difficult. So he uses a rock instead. An example of this definition of pry would be: He tried to pry the door open.