Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- intransitive v. To appeal earnestly; beg: plead for more time.
- intransitive v. To offer reasons for or against something; argue earnestly: plead against a bill.
- intransitive v. To provide an argument or appeal: Your youth pleads for you in this instance.
- intransitive v. Law To put forward a plea of a specific nature in court: plead guilty.
- intransitive v. Law To make or answer an allegation in a legal proceeding.
- intransitive v. Law To address a court as a lawyer or advocate.
- transitive v. To assert as defense, vindication, or excuse; claim as a plea: plead illness.
- transitive v. Law To present as an answer to a charge, indictment, or declaration made against one.
- transitive v. Law To argue or present (a case) in a court or similar tribunal.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- v. To present an argument, especially in a legal case.
- v. To beg, beseech, or implore.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- transitive v. To argue in support of a claim, or in defense against the claim of another; to urge reasons for or against a thing; to attempt to persuade one by argument or supplication; to speak by way of persuasion
- transitive v. To present an answer, by allegation of fact, to the declaration of a plaintiff; to deny the plaintiff's declaration and demand, or to allege facts which show that ought not to recover in the suit; in a less strict sense, to make an allegation of fact in a cause; to carry on the allegations of the respective parties in a cause; to carry on a suit or plea.
- transitive v. To contend; to struggle.
- transitive v. To discuss, defend, and attempt to maintain by arguments or reasons presented to a tribunal or person having uthority to determine; to argue at the bar.
- transitive v. To allege or cite in a legal plea or defense, or for repelling a demand in law; to answer to an indictment
- transitive v. To allege or adduce in proof, support, or vendication; to offer in excuse.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- In law, to present an answer to the declaration or complaint of a plaintiff, or the charge of a prosecutor; deny the plaintiff's declaration or complaint, or allege facts relied on as showing that he ought not to recover in the suit.
- To urge a plea, an argument, or an excuse for or against a claim, or in support, justification, extenuation, etc.; endeavor to persuade by argument or supplication; urge reasons or use argument: as, to plead with a judge for a criminal or in his favor; to plead with a wrongdoer, urging him to reform.
- To sue; make application; enter a plea or an argument.
- To argue or prosecute causes; contend.
- To discuss, defend, and attempt to maintain by arguments or reasons offered to the person or tribunal that has the power of determining; argue: as, to plead a cause before a court or jury.
- To urge or allege in extenuation, justification, or defense; adduce in proof, support, or vindication: as, to plead poverty as an excuse for stealing.
- To set forth in a plea or defense; interpose a plea of: as, to plead a statute of limitations.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- v. appeal or request earnestly
- v. 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
- v. offer as an excuse or plea
- v. enter a plea, as in courts of law
Etymologies
Examples
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QUOTATION: Their cause I plead, plead it in heart and mind;
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2Their cause I plead, plead it in heart and mind;
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4216Their cause I plead, plead it in heart and mind;
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Or from my Baptist upbringing, if during a business meeting (a meeting open to all members, usually after church, and with final authority on all matters dealing with the church) I had become upset enough to get the police involved, and was charged with and again plead guilty to a misdemeanor after consulting counsel, would the court approve forbidding me to practice my religion for the balance of mylife?
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Now, she may file for divorce, and all she must plead is that the marriage has broken down.
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Aside from offering assurances that violators of the detainees will be punished Rice†™ s plead is as empty as President Bush†™ s denial that he had no knowledge that extraordinary retention involved torture.
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P petulant in expression plead in vain pleasing in outline plunged in darkness positive in judgment practical in application pride in success protest in vain pursued in leisure
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In Britain, as we all know, the practice of law is divided between solicitors, who prepare the cases for trial, and barristers, who argue or 'plead' the cases in court.
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But he did kind of plead and say, you know, give us one more chance.
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And you know, I think the best thing we can do is say we ` re sorry and give them their money back and give them a free ticket and then kind of plead them to come and fly again and show them this isn ` t the way we do business here at JetBlue.
mihoz commented on the word plead
To plead with: to beg something of someone
May 26, 2013