| 释义 |
▪ I. plea, n.|pliː|
Forms: α. 3 plaid, playd (see also plead n.). β. 3–4 plait, playt, 5 pleet, 5–6 plete, 7 pleyt. γ. 3 plai, 3 (6 Sc.) play, 3–6 ple, 4–6 plee, pley, (5 pl. place), 6– plea; (Sc. 6 plei, plie, 6– ply, 7 pleie, pleye, 7–8 pley). As to common place for Common Pleas, see the latter.
[ME. plaid, plai, a. OF. plaid (842 in Strasburg oath), agreement, decision, decree, lawcourt, suit, action, in Anglo-Norm. plai (c 1170 in Horn), play, law-suit, action:—*playid-, *ˈplagid-:—L. placit-um that which pleases or is agreed upon, a decision, decree, etc., in 9th c. (in phrases placita habēre, tenēre), an assembly for discussion and decision of matters of state; n. use of pa. pple. neut. of L. placēre to please: see placit. The β forms agree with the OF. variant plait (11th c.), plet, plaict (Godef.), Prov. plait, Sp. pleito, Pg. preito, It. piato, early med.L. plaitum (Du Cange) from placitum.]
I. In Law.
1. a. A suit or action at law; the presentation of an action in court. Now Hist. and Sc. (esp. in phr. a law-plea).
αa1250Owl & Night. (Cott.) 5 Þat plait [Jesus MS. playd] was stif & starc & strong. Ibid. 1737 An lateþ dom þis plaid [Jesus MS. playd] tobreke.
βc1290Beket 601 Ȝif ani plait [R. Glouc. (Rolls) 9704 play] to chapitle were i-drawe And ani man made ani apel. 1340Ayenb. 39 To þise zenne belongeþ al þet barat, alle ualshedes, and alle gyles þet comeþ ine plait. c1400Apol. Loll. 79 In þe court of pleet. 1510–20Compl. too late maryed (1862) 7 To daye I had peas, rest, and unyte, To morowe I had plete and processe dyvers. 1622Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 470 For the tenth time, the pleyte or suite, with all the records, goeth out of that Iudges court to a higher court.
γ [1292Britton i. xvi. §4 Si soit le plé del princepal suspendu [let the plea against the principal be suspended]. Ibid. ii. xv. §5 Si le play soit meu, et en plé pledaunt soit le bref trové vicious [if the plea be opened, and in the course of pleading the writ be found defective]. ]
c1290Beket 576 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 123 Þe king wolde þat In his court þat plai [v.r. ple] scholde beon i-driue. c1380Wyclif Eng. Wks. (1880) 89 He meynteneþ most synne bi preuylegies, exempcions & longe plees. c1440Lydg. Hors, Shepe & G. 1 Controuersies pleys & discordis Atween persones were it too or thre. c1450Godstow Reg. 303 William Fitz Petir called into plee Moolde Vpton, Abbesse of Godestowe, and the Covent of the same place, in a plee of dette in the Courte of Mighell of Meldon. 1463–4Plumpton Corr. (Camden) 9 Be the place of the detinue for a chalise shold be lent to you; also the writts were out. c1470Henryson Tale of Dog 45 It is..perrilous Till enter in pley befoir ane juge suspect. 1487Sc. Acts Jas. III (1814) II. 177/2 That all Ciuile accionis questionis and pleyis..be determytt & decidit befor the Iuge ordinaris. 1535Coverdale 2 Sam. xv. 4 O..that euery man which hath a plee or matter to do in y⊇ lawe, might come to me. 1557N. Grimalde Mans Life in Tottell's Misc. (Arb.) 109 The courts of plea, by braul, and bate, driue gentle peace away. 1570Buchanan Chamæleon Wks. (1892) 46 [He] socht to mak ane other change of court, and set vp new play agane. c1575Balfour's Practicks (1754) 53 All mutes and pleyis quhilk happinis to rise within burgh, sould be pleadit and determinat within the samin. 1577Harrison England ii. ix. (1877) i. 202 These cases are otherwise called plees or action, wherof there are two sorts, the one criminall and the other ciuill. 1591Lambarde Archeion (1635) 16 No man ought to sue out of the Countrey, or to draw his Plea from thence. 1609Skene Reg. Maj. i. 8 To compeir, and answere..vpon the principall pleie..touching the lands vnjustlie occupied be him. 1637–50Row Hist. Kirk (Wodrow Soc.) 174 The Session charged with buying of pleyes, delaying of justice and bryberie. a1735Arbuthnot John Bull (1755) 14 A plea between two country esquires about a barren acre upon a common. 1822Galt Provost xxvii, This gave rise to many pleas, and..bickerings, before the magistrates. 1862McGilvray Poems 75 (E.D.D.) You won the plea.
b. Phrases. to hold pleas (= med.L. tenere placita), to try actions at law, to have jurisdiction; to hold a plea, to try an action.
1477Rolls of Parlt. VI. 187/2 That..no Styward..hold plee uppon any Action, atte sute of any persone. 1494Fabyan Chron. vii. 344 Syr Hugh Bygotte, iustyce,..kepte his courte at Seynt Sauyours, & helde there the plees callyd Itinerii, the whiche is to meane, the traueylynge, or the waye plees. 1531Dial. on Laws Eng. ii. xxxvi. (1638) 127 For else it were a thing in vaine for him to hold plee of Advowsons. 1570–6Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 182 Having a court..in which they hold plea of all causes and actions, reall and personall, civill and criminall. 1620J. Wilkinson Coroners & Sherifes 46 By a writ of Justicies out of the chancery, which is a commission to the Sherif to hold plea of any summe whatsoever. 1768Blackstone Comm. III. vii. 112 This writ may issue..to the county courts or courts-baron, where they attempt to hold plea of any matter of the value of forty shillings. 1874Stubbs Const. Hist. I. iii. 46 The count..is still allowed to hold pleas.
c. common pleas: originally, legal proceedings on matters over which the Crown did not claim exclusive jurisdiction; later, actions at law brought by one subject against another, identified with civil actions, and sometimes called † civil pleas (obs.). Often short for Court of Common Pleas: see Common Pleas.
c1215–1550 [see Common Pleas]. 1591[see d]. Ibid. 21 Courts of Law, that have Jurisdiction of Civill or Common Pleas arising betweene our owne subjects. a1634Coke 2nd Inst. 21 Common or civil pleas are divided into real, personall, and mixt. 1768–1844 [see Common Pleas]. 1895Pollock & Maitland Eng. Law II. 571 Trespass vi et armis, even when..it had become as civil an action as civil could be, was still not for every purpose a Common Plea, for, despite Magna Carta, it might ‘follow the King’.
d. Pleas of the Crown (placita Coronæ): originally, legal proceedings on matters over which the Crown claimed an exclusive jurisdiction, as being breaches of the king's peace; later, in England including all criminal proceedings, as opposed to common pleas or civil proceedings (obs.); in Scotland limited to four of the gravest kinds of action: see quot. 1607.
[1215Magna Carta c. 17 Nullus vicecomes constabularius coronatores uel alii balliui nostri teneant placita corone nostre.] 1529Rastell Pastyme, Hist. Brit. (1811) 183 The plees of the crowne were holden in the towre. 1591Lambarde Archeion (1635) 20 The Courts of Law doe either hold civill, or criminall Causes (more anciently tearmed Common Pleas, and Pleas of the Crowne). 1607Cowell Interpr. s.v., Pleas of the Crowne in Scotland be 4, roberie, rape, murder, and wilfull fire.., with vs they be all suites in the Kings name against offences committed against his Crowne and dignitie.., or against his Crowne and peace. 1651Hobbes Leviath. (1839) 296 The pleas according thereunto called public, judicia publica, Pleas of the Crown; or Private Pleas. 1769Blackstone Comm. IV. i. 2 The code of criminal law; or, as it is more usually denominated with us in England, the doctrine of the pleas of the crown. 1895Pollock & Maitland Eng. Law II. 571 More native to our law was the distinction between Pleas of the Crown and Common Pleas, which was often supposed to coincide with, though really it cut, the more cosmopolitan distinction [i.e. between civil and criminal].
2. a. A pleading; an allegation formally made by a party to the Court; an argument or reason urged by or on behalf of a litigant or party to a suit, in support of his case. to make plea, to plead. Still in Sc. Law: see quots. 1825, 1861.
c1381Chaucer Parl. Foules 485 Of al myn lyf syn that day I was born So gentil ple in loue or othir thyng Ne herde neuere no man me be-forn. 1390Gower Conf. III. 154 Ther was with him non advocat To make ple for his astat. 1467Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 402 Item, [paid] for a nother wrytte..Item, for makenge of a ple for the same, v.s. 1607Cowell Interpr., Plea..signifieth in our common lawe, that which either partie alleadgeth for himselfe in court. 1825Act 6 Geo. IV c. 120 §9 Each of the Parties shall..lodge with the Clerk, previous to the final Adjustment of the Record, a short and concise Note, drawn and signed by Counsel, of the Pleas in Law on which the Action or Defence is to be maintained. 1861W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 636/1 Pleas in law, as a distinct portion of a record, were introduced by the Judicature Act, 6 Geo. IV. c. 120, §9. Ibid. 636/2 The pleas are in general so framed as to ground any legal argument which the facts may warrant. Ibid. 637/1 The panel's plea must either be guilty or not guilty.
b. A formal statement, written or oral, made by or on behalf of a prisoner or defendant, alleging facts either in answer to the indictment, or to the plaintiff's declaration, bill, or statement of claim, or showing cause why the prisoner or defendant should not be compelled to answer.
In civil process, since 1875, technically superseded by defence. declinatory, dilatory, foreign, peremptory, etc. plea: see the adjectives.
[1337Year-Bk. 11 Edw. III (1883) 5 Il nad nulle cause par quei cesti ple girreit en vostre bouche de pleder en barre.] 1449Rolls of Parlt. V. 169/1 To plede any plee or plees in barr of the accyon, or in abatement of the bille. a1531in Dial. Laws Eng., etc. (1886) 360 In an action of debt upon a prompt, it is no plea to say, that he receiveth the money in contestation of his obligation. 1607Cowell Interpr. s.v., Then is there a Forein plea, whereby matter is alleadged in any court that must be tried in another. 1769Blackstone Comm. IV. xxvi. 326 We have now to consider the plea of the prisoner or defensive matter alleged by him on his arraignment. 1818Cruise Digest (ed. 2) II. 222 On debate the plea was allowed by Lord Keeper Bridgeman. 1875Judicature Act O. xix. r. 13 No plea or defence shall be pleaded in abatement.
c. special plea. In civil and criminal law, a plea either in abatement or in bar of an action or prosecution, alleging some new fact, and not merely disputing the ground of action or charge: opposed to the general issue. Cf. plead specially, plead v. 7 b (also Coke On Litt. 282 b). Also, plea-in-bar (without special). (In quot. 1847 fig.)
1699in Ld. Raymond Reports (1790) I. 393 A rule was made by consent that the defendant should waive the special plea, and plead the general issue. 1729G. Jacob New Law-Dict. sig. L 1 verso, A Plea in Bar, not giving a full Answer to all the Matter contained in the Plaintiff's Declaration, is not good. Ibid., If the Plea in Bar be to the Action it self, and the Plaintiff is barred by Judgment, &c. it is a Bar for ever in Personal Actions. 1768Blackstone Comm. III. xx. 305 When he meant to distinguish away or palliate the charge, it was..usual to set forth the particular facts in what is called a special plea. Ibid., Pleas that totally deny the cause of complaint are either the general issue, or a special plea in bar. Ibid. 306 A justification is likewise a special plea in bar. 1769Ibid. IV. xxvi. 329 Special pleas in bar; which go to the merits of the indictment, and give a reason why the prisoner ought not to answer it at all, nor put himself upon his trial for the crime alleged. These are of four kinds: a former acquittal, a former conviction, a former attainder, or a pardon. 1817W. Selwyn Law Nisi Prius (ed. 4) II. 692 Special pleas, either in bar or abatement, are seldom pleaded to this action [Ejectment]. 1847Dickens Dombey (1848) xxiii. 229 A plea in bar that they would have valuable consideration for their kindness. 1963Times 9 May 17/5 Connelly said yesterday that he wished to withdraw that plea of Not Guilty and to enter a plea-in-bar on the grounds of autrefois acquit.
d. ellipt. for ‘a plea of guilty’, spec. in U.S. slang phr. to cop a plea, to plead guilty, usu. as part of a bargain or agreement with the prosecution. Also transf. in Black English (see quot. 19701).
1927Amer. Speech II. v. 281/1 Cop a plea, to tell the truth. 1929Hostetter & Beesley It's a Racket! 222 Cop a plea, to plead guilty to a lesser crime than the one originally charged. 1941J. Smiley Hash House Lingo 19 Cop a plea, acknowledge a complaint. 1959Jowitt Dict. Eng. Law II. 1350/2 The word ‘plea’ is used colloquially to mean a plea of guilty. 1963J. Prescot Case for Hearing viii. 123 As for the trial itself, I dont't give it more than half a day. It's bound to end up in a plea. 1970Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 6 Mar. 19/2 The majority of accused pleaded guilty—the case then being known to practitioners as a ‘plea’ as distinct from a ‘fight’—and for pleas there was no legal aid. 1970C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 41 Cop a plea, to be verbally evasive. 1970J. Cole in A. Chapman New Black Voices (1972) 495 The street life style is the cool world... It is here we see the greatest development of stylized talking, sounding,..copping a plea and whupping game. 1972J. L. Dillard Black English i. 4 Characteristic ghetto uses of language like..‘coppin' a plea’, and ‘the dozens’, are now fairly familiar. 1974Telegraph (Brisbane) 4 June 14/7 Today he did what Americans call copped a plea, in return for pleading guilty to the least serious charge against him, all the other charges of involvement in Watergate and the burglary of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist were dropped.
II. Extended and figurative uses.
3. Controversy, debate, contention, quarrel, strife. In later usage chiefly, now only, Sc.
a1250[see 1 α]. c1320Cast. Love 1078 ‘A! Ich am bitrayȝed,’ qd þe fend þo, ‘Nou Ich am þorw ple over-comen so.’ 1382Wyclif Isa. lviii. 4 Lo! to ples and to striues ȝee fasten, and smyten with the fist vnpitously. 1387–8T. Usk Test. Love ii. v. (Skeat) I. 22 Wherof cometh plee, debat, thefte, begylinges, but richesse to winne. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 305/1 He also had a grete plee and altercacion with the deuylle for the body of Moyses. 1560A. L. tr. Calvin's Foure Serm. Songe Ezech. i, He entreth not into plea with God. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. x. 316 Sum captanis fra baith pairtes, sped with speid to stanche this pley, and mitigate this controuersie. Ibid. 433 Tha suld returne But plie [L. sine armorum strepitu]. a1774Fergusson Hallowfair Poems (1845) 16 Pleys that bring him to the Guard And eke the Council Chammer. a1810Tannahill Poems (1846) 11 His wife and him are at some family plea. 1872Michie Deeside Tales xiv. 120 There was like to be a ply between them an' the Forbeses.
4. That which is pleaded, maintained, or urged in justification or excuse; a pleading, appeal, argument, claim; an apology, pretext, excuse.
a1550Vox Populi 423 in Hazl. E.P.P. III. 283 Thei are dryven to theire plea. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 612 The Capitaine perceiuing his dilatorie ple, by force tooke him from the officers. 1589Nashe Pref. Greene's Menaphon (Arb.) 14, I had rather referre it, as a disputatiue plea to diuines. 1638Penit. Conf. vii. (1657) 127 Their best plea is from the words of Christ. 1667Milton P.L. iv. 394 So spoke the Fiend, and with necessity, The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds. 1754Richardson Grandison III. xviii. 152 No plea is too weak for folly and self-interest to insist upon. 1771Horne in Junius Lett. li. (1772) II. 197, I admit the plea. 1838Thirlwall Greece xxxvii, V. 5 He obtained leave to decline the command on a plea which can scarcely have been more than a pretext. 1877Froude Short Stud. (1883) IV. i. i. 4 The privilege and authority of bishops and clergy was Becket's plea for convulsing Europe.
†5. transf. That which is demanded by pleading; a claim. Obs. rare.
1588Shakes. L.L.L. ii. i. 7 The plea of no lesse weight Than Aquitaine. 1596― Merch. V. iii. ii. 284 But none can driue him from the enuious plea Of forfeiture, of iustice, and his bond. Ibid. iv. i. 198, 203.
†6. A proposal, offer. Obs.
c1450Merlin 365 And yet shall I make to yow a feire plee: com with me to Bredigan..and do hym homage..and I shall yelde yow the castell all quyte. Ibid. 366, I sente hym to wite that I wolde he make no pleet, ne noyse to no man of his companye.
7. attrib. and Comb.: (in sense 2) plea-roll; plea-bargaining vbl. n. (orig. U.S.), a practice whereby a defendant in criminal proceedings agrees to plead guilty to a charge in exchange for the prosecution's cooperation in securing a more lenient sentence or some other mitigation; hence (as a back-formation) plea bargain n. and v. intr.; plea-house Sc., a court of law; plea-side, the civil side of a court having both civil and criminal jurisdiction.
1969Northwestern Reporter 2nd Ser. CLXV. 528/1 Court has proper role of discreet inquiry into propriety of settlement whereby defendant as a result of *plea bargain agrees to plead guilty to lesser degree of offense than that with which he was charged. 1974Harper's Mag. Jan. 8 The vast majority of criminal sentences in the United States..are the result of ‘plea bargains’ in which the defendant ‘waives’ his constitutional right to trial in exchange for a ‘good deal’. 1974Newsweek 28 Jan. 14/2 Jaworski was plea-bargaining with a number of the principals—‘dealing up’ with reduced charges in return for their testimony against their betters. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 22 May 3/3 That attitude, shared by some other judges here, is yet another reason for the sharp increase in jury trials. So is Connick's refusal to plea bargain with defendants in all but a relative handful of cases. 1978Globe & Mail (Toronto) 2 Feb. 15/1 In a plea bargain, Polanski pleaded guilty Aug. 8 to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. Five other counts were dismissed.
1964Univ. Pennsylvania Law Rev. CXII. 865 Some prosecuting attorneys object to the use of the phrase ‘*plea bargaining’. One prosecutor indicated that ‘by labelling the procedure ‘plea bargaining’ you tend to make the procedure sound unethical and improper’. 1967Atlantic Reporter 2nd Ser. CCXXIII. 703/1 Plea bargaining between the prosecution and the defense is a frequently resorted to technique. In exchange for a guilty plea, the prosecutor may agree to recommend a lighter sentence, to accept a plea to a lesser included offense, or to dismiss other pending charges. 1970Guardian 25 Aug. 1/1 The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Parker, yesterday banned ‘plea bargaining’, where a court agrees to impose a lighter sentence if the accused pleads guilty. 1972N.Y. Times 3 Nov. 18/3 Two-thirds of the addicts now in the program were admitted after being found guilty, usually in plea-bargaining situations in Criminal Court. 1973Reader's Digest Nov. 169/1 They'll tell you that plea bargaining—in which a youngster pleads guilty to a lesser offense in return for a lighter sentence—is possible. 1975P. Moyes Black Widower xii. 146 What about plea-bargaining?.. Suppose you told Martin that the police would only ask for a nominal fine on the streaking charge..if in return Martin would talk to me.
[1459: see plead n. 4.] 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. v, He's seldom at hame when there's ony o' the *plea-houses open.
1873A. C. Ewald Our Public Records 37 The *Plea Rolls contain the general proceedings in causes, but are very defective, owing to the neglect of attorneys to bring the records in. 1886[see issue roll s.v. issue n. 16]. 1936Oxoniensia I. 140 It is impossible to make intelligent use of a plea roll or a pipe roll without fully understanding the governmental machinery that produced it. 1959Jowitt Dict. Eng. Law II. 1567/2 In the old common law practice the steps in every action were entered on a roll, which was called the plea roll, the issue roll, or the judgment roll, according to the stage which the action had reached. 1978Bodl. Libr. Rec. X. 30 Chief clerks of the Court of Common Pleas were responsible for keeping the plea rolls.
1768Blackstone Comm. III. iv. 42 *On the plea-side, or civil branch.
▪ II. plea, v. Sc. and north. dial.
Forms: 5 play, pleye, 5–6 pley, 6 plie, 7– plea.
[f. plea n.]
1. intr. = plead v. 1–3.
c1440Alphabet of Tales 28 On a day he come in to þe cowrte & pleyd with þe men of cowrte & þe judgies & ouer come þaim. Ibid. 208 Gude angels stude on þe toder syde & playid agayns þaim. c1470Henryson Mor. Fab. xii. (Wolf & Lamb) viii, Yaa, quod the wolf, yit pleyis thow agane. 1599in R. M. Fergusson Hume (1899) 222 note, The Magistrats..sall rather accept voluntarlie ten bolls mault ȝeirlie..then to pley for ye said Landis. 1700Z. Haig in J. Russell Haigs xi. (1881) 335 He advised me in general to quit two or three thousand merks rather then plea. c1817Hogg Tales & Sk. V. 155 Another great acquisition of property, for which I had pleaed. 1868J. Salmon Gowodean ii. i. 41 Scorn the love of whilk sae mony plea.
2. trans. = plead v. 4–7.
1581Satir. Poems Reform. xliii. 160 It was the Dowglassis douchtaly them dang, And pleit ȝour proces in that parliament. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. i. 116 Athir ar thay preistes serueng the kirk; or men of law to plie a cause, or men of weir to fecht. 1816Scott Old Mort. xlii, The estate was sair plea'd between Leddy Margaret Bellenden and the present Laird. 1887M. R. Lahee Traits Lanc. Flk. 9 (E.D.D.) Aw'm like to plea poverty.
▪ III. plea
erron. obs. f. please v. |