plead
pronunciation
How to pronounce plead in British English:
UK [pliːd]
How to pronounce plead in American English:
US [pliːd]
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- Verb:
- appeal or request earnestly
- offer as an excuse or plea
- enter a plea, as in courts of law
- make an allegation in an action or other legal proceeding, especially answer the previous pleading of the other party by denying facts therein stated or by alleging new facts
Word Origin
- plead
- plead: [13] Essentially plead and plea are the same word. Both go back ultimately to Latin placitum ‘something pleasant’, hence ‘something that pleases both sides’, ‘something agreed upon’, and finally ‘opinion, decision’. This was a noun formed from the past participle of placēre ‘please’ (source of English please). It passed into Old French as plaid ‘agreement, discussion, lawsuit’, and formed the basis of a verb plaidier, from which (via Anglo-Norman pleder) English got plead. In later Old French plaid became plait, and Anglo-Norman took it over as plai or ple – whence English plea [13].=> plea, please
- plead (v.)
- mid-13c., "make a plea in court," from Anglo-French pleder, Old French plaidier, "plead at court" (11c.), from Medieval Latin placitare, from Late Latin placitum (see plea). Sense of "request, beg" first recorded late 14c. Related: Pleaded; pleading; pleadingly.
Example
- 1. Some voices plead for a return to peace .
- 2. Yet he cannot plead ignorance of the senate 's workings .
- 3. Do you plead guilty to stealing the bicycle ?
- 4. I tried to plead with her .
- 5. They plead for the means to go deeper but they cannot afford the dynamite or machinery .