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pleading

pleading

1 4.1
Asking for something in a strong, emotional way
  • adjective
  • /ˈpliːdɪŋ/
translation icon : suplicante
  • Then sliced a quail egg and painted on squid ink to represent pleading eyes and a mouth begging for mercy.

Examples

  • From time to time she passed soldiers driving before them with whips and rifle butts, whole families, men, women and children, shrieking, pleading, wailing.

  • His master was talking swiftly, and the other man was looking at him in an embarrassed, stealthy, and pleading manner: his eyes seemed to be apologizing for having supplanted him, so he mumbled.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • What these women were like pleading for was just to be seen as something else.

  • And so I'm looking pleading with God and then so then I run home.

  • We went from pleading thoughts to publication here and is very tied to this place.

  • You can't see me like pleading, begging the audience.

  • So wherever the cry goes out, asking, pleading, is there no bomb in Gilead?

  • I think more of you are familiar with his work with pleading, and I found him an incredible designer, but I wouldn't put him in the quiet luxury camp.

  • "And a sweet, gentle, pleading, innocent, "delicate, sympathetic, loyal, untutored, adoring female heart."

  • The dog's eyes had a pleading expression as it looked at its owner, hoping for a treat.

Synonyms

beseeching
vspleading
  • Formal
6.1

Showing a strong, urgent request for help or forgiveness

is a strong appeal too but can be less immediately urgent
imploring
vspleading
6.1

Asking for help in a strong, pleading way

is a strong appeal but not always as urgent or frantic
supplicatory
vspleading
  • Formal
9.9

Asking for help in a humble, urgent way

is more emotionally driven and less focused on humility
supplicant
vspleading
  • Formal
8.5

Asking in a humble, serious way for help or forgiveness

is a strong emotional appeal rather than humble submission
precative
vspleading
9.9

To make a humble, urgent request, often like a prayer

is more personal and emotional rather than formal or ritual
adjuratory
vspleading
  • Formal
9.9

To ask people seriously and strongly to do or stop something

is more emotionally needy and less formal or commanding

Compounds

A court statement that gives different facts or claims to use later

An argument that ignores bad evidence to seem true

9.9

A legal document filed in court that has errors or missing information

A defendant's statement giving new facts to defeat the plaintiff's claim

A court paper that gives different, sometimes opposite, versions of facts so a lawyer can use any that fit

9.1

A legal document that adds new facts to answer an accusation

How Urgent

beseeching
  • Formal
6.1
pleading
1 4.1

Surface Forms

pleading positive

Morphology

pleading = plead (transparent) = plead + ing

Adjectival 'pleading' directly describes something that makes or shows a plea and is easily derived from 'plead' + -ing.

Etymology

Pleading comes from the same root as plea, which means a 'request', so a pleading look or voice is like making a strong, often emotional, 'plea'. A helpful way to remember it is to think of someone quietly saying please while asking earnestly.