PLY • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Ply

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/plaɪ/ Listen

verb

Ply v. t. (past & past part. plied; pres. part. plying)

1.

To bend. (Obs.) "As men may warm wax with handes plie."

2.

To lay on closely, or in folds; to work upon steadily, or with repeated acts; to press upon; to urge importunately; as, to ply one with questions, with solicitations, or with drink. "And plies him with redoubled strokes" "He plies the duke at morning and at night."

3.

To employ diligently; to use steadily. "Go ply thy needle; meddle not."

4.

To practice or perform with diligence; to work at. "Their bloody task, unwearied, still they ply."

Ply v. i.

1.

To bend; to yield. (Obs.) "It would rather burst atwo than plye." "The willow plied, and gave way to the gust."

2.

To act, go, or work diligently and steadily; especially, to do something by repeated actions; to go back and forth; as, a steamer plies between certain ports. "Ere half these authors be read (which will soon be with plying hard and daily)." "He was forced to ply in the streets as a porter." "The heavy hammers and mallets plied."

3.

(Naut.) To work to windward; to beat.

noun

Ply n.

1.

A fold; a plait; a turn or twist, as of a cord.

2.

Bent; turn; direction; bias. "The late learners can not so well take the ply." "Boswell, and others of Goldsmith's contemporaries,... did not understand the secret plies of his character." "The czar's mind had taken a strange ply, which it retained to the last." Note: Ply is used in composition to designate folds, or the number of webs interwoven; as, a three-ply carpet.

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Etymology of 'Ply'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ply" Quotes from Famous Books

... wind of fortune veers, And blue-white skies turn leaden hue, When every pleasant prospect blears And all the weary world's askew— Who then would envy (if he knew) Jack Point the jester, glum and trist; Or ply, tho' first of all the crew, ...

— A line-o'-verse or two • Bert Leston Taylor

... song, how these must ply From the harbours of home to the ports o' the sky! Do ye dream none knoweth the whither and why On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day, The three great ships go sailing by On Christmas Day ...

— Collected Poems - Volume One (of 2) • Alfred Noyes

... a critical situation. The idlers began to ply the occupants of the cab with a hundred questions which must be answered in some shape unless suspicion was to be aroused—and suspicion, under such circumstances, would mean the holding back of the train, and the failure ...

— Chasing an Iron Horse - Or, A Boy's Adventures in the Civil War • Edward Robins

... private circles and of public dinners. Still he met with many competitors in this line. In the metropolis, the mendicants for fame, like the professional beggars, portion out the town among them, and whoever ventures to ply beyond his allotted walk is immediately jostled and abused; and the false pretensions of the wit, and all the tricks to obtain admiration, are as sure to be exposed by some rivals of the trade, as the false legs, arms, and various impostures of the beggar ...

— Tales and Novels, Vol. VII - Patronage • Maria Edgeworth

... now fled, and it seemed to me it had fled forever. A life of living death, beset with the innumerable horrors of the cotton field, and the sugar plantation, seemed to be my doom. The fiends, who rushed into the prison when we were first put there, continued to visit me,{233} and to ply me with questions and with their tantalizing remarks. I was insulted, but helpless; keenly alive to the demands of justice and liberty, but with no means of asserting them. To talk to those imps about justice and mercy, would have been as absurd as to reason with bears and tigers. ...

— My Bondage and My Freedom • Frederick Douglass

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