plea

Etymology

From Middle English ple, from Old French plait, plaid, from Medieval Latin placitum (“a decree, sentence, suit, plea, etc., Latin an opinion, determination, prescription, order; literally, that which is pleasing, pleasure”), neuter of placitus, past participle of placere (“to please”). Cognate with Spanish pleito (“lawsuit, suit”). Doublet of placit and placate. See also please, pleasure.

noun

1. An appeal, petition, urgent prayer or entreaty.
   a plea for mercy
   make a plea
2. An excuse; an apology.
   No Plea must serve; ’tis cruelty to spare. 1668, Sir John Denham, Poems and Translations with The Sophy, “The Sophy”, Actus Primus, Scena Segunda, page 6
3. That which is alleged or pleaded, in defense or in justification.
4. (law) That which is alleged by a party in support of his cause.
5. (law) An allegation of fact in a cause, as distinguished from a demurrer.
6. (law) The defendant’s answer to the plaintiff’s declaration and demand.
7. (law) A cause in court; a lawsuit; as, the Court of Common Pleas.
   they or any three of them shall be a Court and have cognizance of pleas real, personal, and mixed. 1782, "An Act establishing a Supreme Judicial Court within the Commonwealth", quoted in The Constitutional History of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Frank Washburn Grinnell, 1917, page 434

verb

1. (chiefly England regional, Scotland) To plead; to argue.
   With my riches, my unhappiness was increased tenfold; and here, with another great acquisition of property, for which I had pleaed, and which I had gained in a dream, my miseries and difficulties were increasing. 1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner