plea
See also: pleâ
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English ple, from Old French plait, plaid, from Medieval Latin placitum (“a decree, sentence, suit, plea, etc., Latin an opinion, determination, prescription, order; literally, that which is pleasing, pleasure”), neuter of placitus, past participle of placere (“to please”). Cognate with Spanish pleito (“lawsuit, suit”). Doublet of placit. See also please, pleasure.
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /pliː/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -iː
Noun
[edit]plea (plural pleas)
- An appeal, petition, urgent prayer or entreaty.
- 1981 December 1, George D. Johnson, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 20, page 18:
- Even if only one person answers my plea for someone to correspond with it will be a blessing.
- a plea for mercy
- make a plea
- An excuse; an apology.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
- Necessity, the tyrant’s plea.
- 1668, Sir John Denham, Poems and Translations with The Sophy, “The Sophy”, Actus Primus, Scena Segunda, page 6:
- No Plea must serve; ’tis cruelty to spare.
- That which is alleged or pleaded, in defense or in justification.
- (law) That which is alleged by a party in support of his cause.
- (law) An allegation of fact in a cause, as distinguished from a demurrer.
- (law) The defendant’s answer to the plaintiff’s declaration and demand.
- (law) A cause in court; a lawsuit; as, the Court of Common Pleas.
- 1782, "An Act establishing a Supreme Judicial Court within the Commonwealth", quoted in The Constitutional History of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Frank Washburn Grinnell, 1917, page 434
- they or any three of them shall be a Court and have cognizance of pleas real, personal, and mixed.
- 1782, "An Act establishing a Supreme Judicial Court within the Commonwealth", quoted in The Constitutional History of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Frank Washburn Grinnell, 1917, page 434
Usage notes
[edit]In 19th-century U.K. law, that which the plaintiff alleges in his declaration is answered and repelled or justified by the defendant’s plea. In chancery practice, a plea is a special answer showing or relying upon one or more things as a cause why the suit should be either dismissed, delayed, or barred. In criminal practice, the plea is the defendant’s formal answer to the indictment or information presented against him/her.
Synonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]appeal, petition, entreaty
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excuse
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that which is presented in defense or justification
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law: that which is alleged by a party in support of his cause
law: allegation of fact in a cause, as distinguished from a demurrer
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law: defendant's answer to plaintiff’s declaration
law: cause in court
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Verb
[edit]plea (third-person singular simple present pleas, present participle pleaing, simple past and past participle pleaed)
- (chiefly England regional, Scotland) To plead; to argue. [from 15th c.]
- 1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner:
- With my riches, my unhappiness was increased tenfold; and here, with another great acquisition of property, for which I had pleaed, and which I had gained in a dream, my miseries and difficulties were increasing.
Further reading
[edit]- “plea”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “plea”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
- “plea”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Anagrams
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