Plead - PLEAD, v.i. [See Plea.] In a general sense, to argue in support of a claim, or in defense against the claim of another.
1. In law, to present an answer to the declaration of a plaintiff; to deny the plaintiff's declaration and demand, or to allege facts which show that he ought not to recover in the suit. The plaintiff declares or alleges; the defendant pleads to his declaration. The king or the state prosecutes an offender, and the offender pleads not guilty, or confesses the charge.
2. To urge reasons for or against; to attempt to persuade one by argument or supplication; as, to plead for the life of a criminal; to plead in his favor; to plead with a judge or with a father.
O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbor! Job 16.
3. To supplicate with earnestness.
4. To urge; to press by operating on the passions.
Since you can love, and yet your error see,
The same resistless power may plead for me.
PLEAD, v.t. To discuss, defend and attempt to maintain by arguments or reasons offered to the tribunal or person who has the power of determining; as, to plead a cause before a court or jury. In this sense, argue is more generally used by lawyers.
1. To allege or adduce in proof, support or vindication. The law of nations may be pleaded in favor of the rights of ambassadors.
2. To offer in excuse.
I will neither plead my age nor sickness in excuse of faults.
3. To allege and offer in a legal plea or defense, or for repelling a demand in law; as, to plead usury; to plead a statute of limitations.
4. In Scripture, to plead the cause of the righteous, as God, is to avenge or vindicate them against enemies, or to redress their grievances. Isa 51.
Please - PLEASE, v.t. s as z. [L. placere, placeo.]
1. To excite agreeable sensations or emotions in; to gratify; as, to please the taste; to please the mind.
Their words pleased Hamor, and Shechem, Hamor's son. Gen 34.
Leave such to trifle with more grace than ease,
Whom folly pleases, and whose follies please.
2. To satisfy; to content.
What next I bring shall please
Thy wish exactly to thy heart's desire.
3. To prefer; to have satisfaction in; to like; to choose.
Many of our most skilful painters were pleased or recommend this author to me.
To be pleased in or with, to approve; to have complacency in. Mat 3.
To please God, is to love his character and law and perform his will, so as to become the object of his approbation.
They that are in the flesh cannot please God. Rom 8.
PLEASE, v.i. s as z. To like; to choose; to prefer.
Spirits, freed from mortal laws, with ease
Assume what sexes and what shapes they please.
1. To condescend; to comply; to be pleased; a word of ceremony.
Please you, lords,
In sight of both our battles we may meet.
The first words that I learnt were, to express my desire that he would please to give me my liberty.
Please expresses less gratification than delight.
Pleasure - PLEASURE, n. plezh'ur.
1. The gratification of the senses or of the mind; agreeable sensations or emotions; the excitement, relish or happiness produced by enjoyment or the expectation of good; opposed to pain. We receive pleasure from the indulgence of appetite; from the view of a beautiful landscape; from the harmony of sounds; from agreeable society; from the expectation of seeing an absent friend; from the prospect of gain or success of any kind. Pleasure, bodily and mental, carnal and spiritual, constitutes the whole of positive happiness, as pain constitutes the whole of misery.
Pleasure is properly positive excitement of the passions or the mind; but we give the name also to the absence of excitement, when that excitement is painful; as when we cease to labor, or repose after fatigue, or when the mind is tranquilized after anxiety or agitation.
Pleasure is susceptible of increase to any degree; but the word when unqualified, expresses less excitement or happiness than delight or joy.
2. Sensual or sexual gratification.
3. Approbation.
The Lord taketh pleasure in his people. Psa 147.
and 149.
4. What the will dictates or prefers; will; choice; purpose; intention; command; as, use your pleasure.
Cyrus, he is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure. Isa 44.
My counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure.
Isa 46.
5. A favor; that which pleases.
Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure, answered Paul. Acts 25.
6. Arbitrary will or choice. He can vary his scheme at pleasure.
PLEAS'URE, v.t. plezh'ur. To give or afford pleasure to; to please; to gratify. [A word authorized by some good writers, but superfluous and not much used.]
Poor - POOR, a. [L. pauper.]
1. Wholly destitute of property, or not having property sufficient for a comfortable subsistence; needy. It is often synonymous with indigent, and with necessitous, denoting extreme want; it is also applied to persons who are not entirely destitute of property, but are not rich; as a poor man or woman; poor people
2. In law, so destitute of property as to be entitled to maintenance from the public.
3. Destitute of strength, beauty or dignity; barren; mean; jejune; as a poor composition; a poor essay; a poor discourse.
4. Destitute of value, worth or importance; of little use; trifling.
That I have wronged no man, will be a poor plea or apology at the last day.
5. Paltry; mean; of little value; as a poor coat; a poor house.
6. Destitute of fertility; barren; exhausted; as poor land. The ground is become poor.
7. Of little worth; unimportant; as in my poor opinion.
8. Unhappy; pitiable.
Vex'd sailors curse the rain
For which poor shepherds pray'd in vain.
9. Mean; depressed; low; dejected; destitute of spirit.
A soothsayer made Antonius believe that his genius,which was otherwise brave, was, in the presence of Octavianus, poor and cowardly.
10. Lean; emaciated; as a poor horse. The ox is poor.
11. Small, or of a bad quality; as a poor crop; a poor harvest.
12. Uncomfortable; restless; ill. The patient has had a poor night.
13. Destitute of saving grace. Rev 3.
14. In general, wanting good qualities, or the qualities which render a thing valuable, excellent, proper, or sufficient for its purpose; as a poor pen; a poor ship; a poor carriage; poor fruit; poor bread; poor wine, &c.
15. A word of tenderness or pity; dear.
Poor, little, pretty, fluttering thing.
16. A word of slight contempt; wretched.
The poor monk never saw many of the decrees and councils he had occasion to use.
17. The poor, collectively, used as a noun; those who are destitute of property; the indigent; the needy; in a legal sense, those who depend on charity or maintenance by the public.
I have observed the more public provisions are made for the poor, the less they provide for themselves.
Poor in spirit, in a Scriptural sense, humble; contrite; abased in one's own sight by a sense of guilt. Mat 5.
Possession - POSSES'SION, n. The having, holding or detention of property in one's power or command; actual seizin or occupancy, either rightful or wrongful. One man may have the possession of a thing, and another may have the right of possession or property.
If the possession is severed from the property; if A has the right of property, and B by unlawful means has gained possession, this is an injury to A. This is a bare or naked possession.
In bailment, the bailee, who receives goods to convey, or to keep for a time, has the possession of the goods, and a temporary right over them, but not the property. Property in possession, includes both the right and the occupation. Long undisturbed possession is presumptive proof of right or property in the possessor.
1. The thing possessed; land, estate or goods owned; as foreign possessions.
The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. Oba 17.
When the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Mat 19.
2. Any thing valuable possessed or enjoyed. Christian peace of mind is the best possession of life.
3. The state of being under the power of demons or invisible beings; madness; lunacy; as demoniacal possession.
Writ of possession, a precept directing a sheriff to put a person in peaceable possession of property recovered in ejectment.
To take possession, to enter on, or to bring within one's power or occupancy.
To give possession, to put in another's power or occupancy.
POSSES'SION, v.t. To invest with property. [Not used.]