Library / English Dictionary

PLEAD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: pled   

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Appeal or request earnestly

Example:

I pleaded with him to stop

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "plead" is one way to...):

appeal; invoke (request earnestly (something from somebody); ask for aid or protection)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "plead"):

beg; implore; pray (call upon in supplication; entreat)

adjure; beseech; bid; conjure; entreat; press (ask for or request earnestly)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

They plead to move

Sense 2

Meaning:

Enter a plea, as in courts of law

Example:

She pleaded not guilty

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "plead" is one way to...):

declare (state emphatically and authoritatively)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s Adjective

Derivation:

pleading ((law) a statement in legal and logical form stating something on behalf of a party to a legal proceeding)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Offer as an excuse or plea

Example:

She was pleading insanity

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "plead" is one way to...):

apologise; apologize; excuse; rationalise; rationalize (defend, explain, clear away, or make excuses for by reasoning)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s Adjective
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Sense 4

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "plead" is one way to...):

allege; aver; say (report or maintain)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "plead"):

demur (enter a demurrer)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

pleader (a lawyer who pleads cases in court)

pleading ((law) a statement in legal and logical form stating something on behalf of a party to a legal proceeding)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Sometimes she struggled with her tears, but when she was desired to plead, she collected her powers and spoke in an audible although variable voice.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Let me plead for my—present friend I cannot call him, but for my former friend.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

He could only plead an ignorance of his own heart, and a mistaken confidence in the force of his engagement.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

“Look, Jim, how my fingers fidges,” he continued in the pleading tone.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

It is a sorry sight to see so true a knight pleading in so false a cause.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"I didn't invent it," I pleaded.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Miss Jane screamed so loud, ma'am," pleaded Bessie.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The possibility of the young man's coming to Mrs. Goddard's that morning, and meeting with Harriet and pleading his own cause, gave alarming ideas.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The process of defending or pleading the cause of another individual or group (from PSY94)

(Advocacy, NCI Thesaurus)

“Oh, spare me, Mr. Holmes! Spare me!” she pleaded, in a frenzy of supplication.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)