plead Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb appeal or request earnestly
    • I pleaded with him to stop
  2. verb offer as an excuse or plea
    • She was pleading insanity
  3. verb enter a plea, as in courts of law
    • She pleaded not guilty
  4. verb 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

WordNet

Plead transitive verb
Etymology
OE. pleden, plaiden, OF. plaidier, F. plaider, fr. LL. placitare, fr. placitum. See Plea.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Pleaded (colloq Plead or Pled); present participle & verbal noun Pleading
Definitions
  1. 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; as, to plead for the life of a criminal; to plead with a judge or with a father.
    O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbor! Job xvi. 21.
  2. (Law) 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. Blackstone. Burrill. Stephen.
  3. To contend; to struggle. Obs. Chaucer.
Plead transitive verb
Definitions
  1. 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; as, to plead a cause before a court or jury.
    Every man should plead his own matter. Sir T. More.
    ✍ In this sense, argue is more generally used by lawyers.
  2. To allege or cite in a legal plea or defense, or for repelling a demand in law; to answer to an indictment; as, to plead usury; to plead statute of limitations; to plead not guilty. Kent.
  3. To allege or adduce in proof, support, or vendication; to offer in excuse; as, the law of nations may be pleaded in favor of the rights of ambassadors. Spenser.
    I will neither plead my age nor sickness, in excuse of faults. Dryden.

Webster 1913