implore
/ɪmˈplɔː
/verb [reporting verb]
1Beg someone earnestly or desperately to do something: [with object and infinitive]: he implored her to change her mind [with direct speech]: ‘Hold me,’ Ellen implored (as adjective imploring) an imploring look...
- And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms around their knees, imploring them to stay.
- The Prime Minister has implored the state and territory leaders to take up the Commonwealth's plan for the Murray-Darling Basin for the good of the nation.
- Most Arabic music is pure melody and rhythm, unencumbered by harmony; voices implore and exult, while instruments share the inflections of song.
Synonyms
plead with, beg, entreat, beseech, appeal to, pray, ask, request, solicit, supplicate, importune, call on;
exhort, urge, enjoin, press, push, petition, encourage, bid
rare obtest, obsecrate, impetrate
1.1 [with object] archaic Beg earnestly for: I implore mercy...
- It is to make atonement to the Most Scared Heart for all the sins of the world and to implore His grace and mercy for every family in the Ferrybank Parish.
- Hundreds of young survivors of the blaze, sweaty and black with soot, raised their arms to the sky as if imploring mercy or hugged each other - sharing pain, fear, anguish and a feeling of helplessness.
- The people prayed, wept, gnashed their teeth, pulled their hair, imploring the mercy of the Virgin Mary.
Derivatives
imploringly
/ adverb ...- He bad been looking imploringly at the hard-faced slatternly woman who stood in the path, but at this moment he had caught sight of Jessie.
- Rickety children clutching imploringly the tattered garments barely covering the bones of their mothers are seen in all quarters of the city.
- He came around the car as she tried to cover herself with her sweater and then, as she looked imploringly into his eyes, he burst out laughing.
Origin
Early 16th century: from French implorer or Latin implorare 'invoke with tears'.
The word implore comes from Latin implorare ‘invoke with tears’.