pleanoun [ C ]
uk/pliː/us/pliː/plea noun [ C ] (REQUEST)
C2 formal an urgent and emotional request:
He made a plea for help/mercy.
More examples
- They made a desperate plea for help.
- The president has made an emotional plea for the killing to stop.
- Relatives of the dead made an impassioned plea for the bodies to be flown back to this country.
- The child's mother made a passionate plea for help.
- Aid organizations are making an urgent plea for financial assistance.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Making appeals & requests
- a cry for help idiom
- appellate
- application
- ask for sb
- beseech
- besiege
- besought
- bum
- cri de coeur
- crowdsource
- freeloader
- gateway
- go over sb's head idiom
- hit
- hit sb up
- I'll thank you to do sth idiom
- pester
- petition
- request
- scrounge
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plea noun [ C ] (STATEMENT)
specialized law the answer that a person gives in court when they have been accused of committing a crime:
Mr Wilson entered a plea of not guilty.
More examples
- The prisoner entered a plea of not guilty.
- Her plea of ignorance of the law in extenuation of her crime was not accepted.
- The judge is not likely to look favourably on a plea of not guilty.
- His plea of guilty to manslaughter was not accepted by the prosecution.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Court cases, orders & decisions
- actionable
- administer
- admissible
- affidavit
- affiliation order
- bail
- bale
- court martial
- defend
- inadmissible
- injunction
- judgment
- judicature
- judicial
- remedy
- retrial
- Rex
- ruling
- separation
- sequester
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