Verb | 1. | plead - appeal or request earnestly; "I pleaded with him to stop" |
2. | plead - offer as an excuse or plea; "She was pleading insanity" | |
3. | plead - enter a plea, as in courts of law; "She pleaded not guilty" | |
4. | plead - 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 |
TO PLEAD. The formal entry of the defendant's defence on the record. In a popular sense, it signifies the argument in a cause, but it is not so used by the profession. Steph. Pl. Appx. note I; Story, Eq. Pl. Sec. 5, note.
adduce, adjure, advance, advocate, affirm, allege, appeal to, apply to, argufy, array, ask for, assert, aver, avow, bandy words, bicker, blandish, brace, bring forward, bring on, bring to bear, cajole, call for help, call on, call upon, cavil, choplogic, clamor for, coax, conduct pleadings, conjure, contend, contest, crave, cross swords, cry for, cry on, cry to, cut and thrust, declare, demand, deploy, discept, dispute, entreat, exhort, give and take, hassle, have it out, high-pressure, impetrate, implead, importune, imprecate, insist, insist upon, invoke, jawbone, join issue, kneel to, lobby, lock horns, logomachize, maintain, make a plea, marshal, moot, nag, obtest, offer, petition, pettifog, plead for, plead with, polemicize, polemize, pray, present, press, pressure, produce, push, put forward, quibble, rally, recommend, request, rest, run to, say, seek, soft-soap, solicit, spar, swear, sweet-talk, take sides, thrash out, try conclusions, urge, wheedle, work on, wrangle