Playtime
(Play"time`) n. Time for play or diversion.
Playwright
(Play"wright`) n. A maker or adapter of plays.
Playwriter
(Play"writ`er) n. A writer of plays; a dramatist; a playwright. Lecky.
Plaza
(||Pla"za) n. [Sp. See Place.] A public square in a city or town.
Plea
(Plea) n. [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.]
1. (Law) 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. (Law) A cause in court; a lawsuit; as, the Court of Common Pleas. See under 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." Milton.
No plea must serve; 't is cruelty to spare.
Denham. 4. An urgent prayer or entreaty.
Pleas of the crown (Eng. Law), criminal actions.
Pleach
(Pleach) v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pleached ; p. pr. & vb. n. Pleaching.] [Cf. OF. plaissier to bend,
and also F. plisser to plait, L. plicare, plicitum, to fold, lay, or wind together. Cf. Plash to pleach.]
To unite by interweaving, as branches of trees; to plash; to interlock. "The pleached bower." Shak.
Plead
(Plead) v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pleaded (colloq. Plead or Pled); p. pr. & vb. n. Pleading.] [OE.
pleden, plaiden, OF. plaidier, F. plaider, fr. LL. placitare, fr. placitum. See Plea.]
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
(Plead) v. t.
