| plea | 1. That which is alleged by a party in support of his cause; in a stricter sense, an allegation of fact in a cause, as distinguished from a demurrer; in a still more limited sense, and in modern practice, the defendant's answer to the plaintiff's declaration and demand. 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. 2. A cause in court; a lawsuit; as, the Court of Common Pleas. See Common. "The Supreme Judicial Court shall have cognizance of pleas real, personal, and mixed." (Laws of Massachusetts) 3. That which is alleged or pleaded, in defense or in justification; an excuse; an apology. "Necessity, the tyrant's plea." "No plea must serve; 't is cruelty to spare." (Denham) 4. An urgent prayer or entreaty. Pleas of the crown, criminal actions. Origin: OE. Plee, plai, plait, fr. OF. Plait, plaid, plet, LL. Placitum judgment, decision, assembly, court, fr. L. Placitum that which is pleasing, an opinion, sentiment, from placere to please. See Please, and cf. Placit, Plead. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| pleach | To unite by interweaving, as branches of trees; to plash; to interlock. "The pleached bower." Origin: Cf. OF. Plaissier to bend, and also F. Plisser to plait, L. Plicare, plicitum, to fold, lay, or wind together. Cf. Plash to pleach. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| please | 1. To give pleasure to; to excite agreeable sensations or emotions in; to make glad; to gratify; to content; to satisfy. "I pray to God that it may plesen you." (Chaucer) "What next I bring shall please thee, be assured." (Milton) 2. To have or take pleasure in; hence, to choose; to wish; to desire; to will. "Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he." (Ps. Cxxxv. 6) "A man doing as he wills, and doing as he pleases, are the same things in common speech." (J. Edwards) 3. To be the will or pleasure of; to seem good to; used impersonally. "It pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell." "To-morrow, may it please you." (Shak) To be pleased in or with, to have complacency in; to take pleasure in. To be pleased to do a thing, to take pleasure in doing it; to have the will to do it; to think proper to do it. Origin: OE. Plesen, OF. Plaisir, fr. L. Placere, akin to placare to reconcile. Cf. Complacent, Placable, Placid, Plea, Plead, Pleasure. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| Pleasure | Max A., U.S. Dentist. See: Pleasure curve. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Pleasure curve | A curve of occlusion which when viewed in sagittal section conforms to a line that is convex upward except for the last molars. (05 Mar 2000) |
| pleasure principle | A psychoanalytic concept that, in a human's psychic functioning, he/she tends to seek pleasure and avoid pain; a term borrowed by experimental psychology to denote the same tendency of an animal in a learning situation. Synonym: pleasure principle. (05 Mar 2000) |
| pleasure-pain principle | The psychoanalytic concept that man instinctively seeks to avoid pain and discomfort and strives for gratification and pleasure. (12 Dec 1998) |