What is praying?

Religion as such aside (Which, I'm not at all sure this should be aside...), it's practically synonym to begging, as heard in "I prayed they would go away" etc. It's usually that even in religious context, when you hear of it. (Okay, so some people do offer prayer before food etc. though that still usually has an element of "Please don't let this food kill me or be last we can afford"). Ancestor-worship is a thing in many religions, so that would be praying then, but for monotheistic religions praying *to* relatives is generally frowned upon.