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ploy

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ploy

[ploi]
–noun
1. a maneuver or stratagem, as in conversation, to gain the advantage.
–verb (used with object)
2. Military Archaic. to move (troops) from a line into a column. Compare deploy.
–verb (used without object)
3. Military Archaic. to move from a line into a column.

Origin:
1475–85; earlier ploye to bend < MF ployer (F plier) < L plicāre to fold, ply 2 ; see deploy


1. tactic, ruse, subterfuge, wile, gambit.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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ploy   (ploi)   
n.  An action calculated to frustrate an opponent or gain an advantage indirectly or deviously; a maneuver: "A typical ploy is to feign illness, procure medicine, then sell it on the black market" (Jill Smolowe).

[Perhaps from employ, employment (obsolete).]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

ploy 
1722, "anything with which one amuses oneself," Scottish and northern England dialect, possibly a shortened form of employ or deploy. Popularized in the sense "move or gambit made to gain advantage" by British humorist Stephen Potter (1900-1969).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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