Contextualizebeta

ply

noun
/plaɪ/US

Etymology

From Middle English plīen, pli, plie (“to bend, fold, mould, shape; to be flexible; to be submissive, humble oneself; to compel someone to submit”), from Anglo-Norman plier, plaier, pleier, ploier, and Middle French plier, ployer (“to bend, fold; to be submissive; to compel someone to submit”) (modern French plier, ployer), from Old French ploiier, pleier (“to fold”), from Latin plicāre (“to fold”); see further at etymology 1. The word is cognate with Catalan plegar (“to bend, fold”), Italian piegare (“to bend, fold, fold up”), Old Occitan plegar, plejar, pleyar (“to fold”) (modern Occitan plegar), Spanish plegar (“to fold”).

  1. derived from plico
  2. derived from ploiier
  3. derived from plier
  4. derived from plier
  5. inherited from plīen

Definitions

  1. A layer of material.

    • two-ply toilet paper
    • It is possible to have a very well load balanced partition but with such a high ply that its slowest piece is slower than a not-so-well balanced partition with less ply.
    • The designer critic's staff would come in with, for example, loads of three-ply cashmere. The students weren't even selecting their own fabrics.

  2. A strand that, twisted together with other strands, makes up rope or yarn.

    • To make the hail rod a rope of straw is the first thing necessary; it must be made of ripe wheat straw, soaked and twisted, plaited with three strand and then with four ply, making twelve strand to the rope.

  3. Clipping of plywood.

    • The compartment ceiling panels are of plastic material backed with ply or hardboard panels.
  4. ›+ 12 more definitions

    1. In two-player sequential games, a "half-turn" or a move made by one of the players.

      • He proposed to build Deep Purple, a super-computer capable of 24-ply look-ahead for chess.

    2. A condition, a state.

      • You may be ſure, in the ply I was now taking, I had no objection to the propoſal, and was rather a tiptoe for its accompliſhment.

    3. To bend

      To bend; to fold; to mould; (figuratively) to adapt, to modify; to change (a person's) mind, to cause (a person) to submit.

    4. To bend, to flex

      To bend, to flex; to be bent by something, to give way or yield (to a force, etc.).

    5. To work at (something) diligently.

      • He plied his trade as carpenter for forty-three years.
      • Ply you your work or elſe you are like to ſmart.
      • But English Courage growing as they fight, / In danger, noise, and slaughter takes delight, / Their bloody Task, unwearied, still they ply, / Only restrain’d by Death, or Victory: […]

    6. To wield or use (a tool, a weapon, etc.) steadily or vigorously.

      • He plied his ax with bloody results.
      • Why how now Dame, whence growes this inſolence? / Bianca ſtand aſide, poore gyrle ſhe weepes: / Go ply thy Needle; meddle not with her.
      • He [a carpenter] feels an additional particle of new life coursing through his veins, and he plys the plane on the following day with additional energy to his own and to his master's satisfaction.

    7. To press upon

      To press upon; to urge persistently.

      • to ply someone with questions or solicitations
      • He plies the Duke at morning and at night, / And doth impeach the freedome of the ſtate / If they deny him iuſtice.

    8. To persist in offering something to, especially for the purpose of inducement or…

      To persist in offering something to, especially for the purpose of inducement or persuasion.

      • to ply someone with drink
      • [T]he true Gameſters pretended to be ill, and refuſed their Glaſs, while they plied heartily two young Fellows, who were to be afterwards pillaged, as indeed they were without Mercy.
      • Esther began […] to cry. But when the fire had been lit specially to warm her chilled limbs and Adela had plied her with hot negus she began to feel rather a heroine.

    9. To travel over (a route) regularly.

      • to ply the seven seas
      • The steamer plies between several ports on the coast.
      • [T]he ſaid corporation ſhall and may be authorized and required to licenſe all ſuch perſon or perſons as ſhall keep or drive any cars, drays or carts, plying for hire within the ſaid town of Wexford,

    10. To work diligently.

      • […] Ere halfe theſe Authors be read, which will ſoon be with plying hard, and dayly, they cannot chooſe but be maſters of any ordinary proſe.
      • He was afterwards reduced to great want, and forced to think of plying in the streets as a porter for his livelihood.

    11. To manoeuvre a sailing vessel so that the direction of the wind changes from one side of…

      To manoeuvre a sailing vessel so that the direction of the wind changes from one side of the vessel to the other; to work to windward, to beat, to tack.

    12. A bent

      A bent; a direction.

The neighborhood

Derived

bias-ply, cross-ply, manyplies, multi-ply, plyboard, plyscraper, plywood, single-ply membrane, single-ply roof, three-ply, two-ply, overply, plier, pliers

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for ply. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA