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plea

[plee]

Example Sentences Origin

noun

an appeal or entreaty: a plea for mercy.

something that is alleged, urged, or pleaded in defense or justification.

an excuse; pretext: He begged off on the plea that his car wasn't working.

Law.

an allegation made by, or on behalf of, a party to a legal suit, in support of his or her claim or defense.

a defendant's answer to a legal declaration or charge.

(in courts of equity) a plea that admits the truth of the declaration, but alleges special or new matter in avoidance.

Obsolete. a suit or action.

Idiom

cop a plea, Slang. cop¹ (def. 5b).

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Plea is always a great word to know.

So is criminal. Does it mean:

of or pertaining to crime or its punishment

an instrument, issued by a magistrate, authorizing an officer to make an arrest, seize property, make a search, or carry a judgment into execution

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Origin:
1175–1225; Middle English ple, earlier plaid < Old French < early Medieval Latin placitum law-court, suit, decision, decree, Latin: opinion (literally, that which is pleasing or agreeable), noun use of neuter of past participle of placēre to please

Can be confused: pleas, please.

Synonyms
1. request, petition, supplication, solicitation, suit. 3. justification.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To plea

Example Sentences

Cooper rejected a plea bargain that called for a sentence of four to seven years.

Yet for over a decade he has languished in jail awaiting a response to his plea for mercy.

Rossler's plea rather than directly address it is disturbing.

EXPAND

Cooper rejected a plea bargain that called for a sentence of four to seven years.

Yet for over a decade he has languished in jail awaiting a response to his plea for mercy.

Rossler's plea rather than directly address it is disturbing.

He resolutely denied her plea to have the picture removed.

Prosecutors declined to comment on the case or describe the details of his plea agreement.

Plea bargaining provides another tool to extract evidence.

Civil debate, corrigendums, addendums and plea bargains encouraged.

The guilty plea brings to a close a long chapter in hacker history.

But this is more a plea for wiser policymakers than a case against reducing rates.

It is the plea that someone should work on the future.

Three other counts were dropped in a plea deal with prosecutors.

He refused to enter a plea himself, leading the judge to enter a plea of innocence on his behalf.

His plea bargain stipulates that any state sentence will not exceed and will run concurrently with his federal sentence.

Mijangos reached a plea deal with the government and copped to two felony charges, computer hacking and wiretapping.

Other parents with working spouses may not have been wholly persuaded by his plea.

The paintings are a powerful plea from children for leadership on climate change.

The insanity plea is usually limited to those who can prove that they could not distinguish or choose due to a mental disorder.

Morgenthau is conducting plea negotiations with top executives from several construction and interior design.

Last week's guilty plea offered a startling new perspective.

The book's thought-provoking and whimsical images also belie a plea for environmental responsibility.

He ends with a plea to protect endangered species and threatened ecosystems.

He submitted his guilty plea the first day of his trial on the murder-for-hire charge.

He could make an uncharacteristic admission of guilt and plea bargain.

Coming from someone who clearly supports a group with extroadinarily unflexible opinions your plea for equal time is humorous.

They also make a plea for not thinking of the policy rate as the only tool of monetary policy, even in more normal times.

It combines a plea for environmental conservatism with a bit of humor while tugging at the heart and making you think.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

plea (pliː)

—n
1.	an earnest entreaty or request: a plea for help
2.	a. law something alleged or pleaded by or on behalf of a party to legal proceedings in support of his claim or defence
	b. criminal law the answer made by an accused to the charge: a plea of guilty
	c. (in Scotland and formerly in England) a suit or action at law
3.	an excuse, justification, or pretext: he gave the plea of a previous engagement

[C13: from Anglo-Norman plai, from Old French plaid lawsuit, from Medieval Latin placitum court order (literally: what is pleasing), from Latin placēre to please]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

plea

c.1215, "lawsuit," from Anglo-Fr. plai (c.1170), O.Fr. plait "lawsuit, decision, decree" (842), from M.L. placitum "lawsuit," in classical L., "opinion, decree," lit. "that which pleases, thing which is agreed upon," properly neut. pp. of placere (see please). Sense development

EXPAND

seems to be from "something pleasant," to "something that pleases both sides," to "something that has been decided." Meaning "a pleading, an agreement in a suit" is attested from c.1381. Plea bargaining is first attested 1963. Common pleas (c.1215) originally were legal proceedings over which the Crown did not claim exclusive jurisdiction (as distinct from pleas of the Crown); later "actions brought by one subject against another."

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

plea

see cop a plea.

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