PLEA • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Plea

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noun

Plea n.

(Law) That which is alleged by a party in support of his cause; in a stricter sense, an allegation of fact in a cause, as distinguished from a demurrer; in a still more limited sense, and in modern practice, the defendant's answer to the plaintiff's declaration and demand. That which the plaintiff alleges in his declaration is answered and repelled or justified by the defendant's plea. In chancery practice, a plea is a special answer showing or relying upon one or more things as a cause why the suit should be either dismissed, delayed, or barred. In criminal practice, the plea is the defendant's formal answer to the indictment or information presented against him.

(Law) A cause in court; a lawsuit; as, the Court of Common Pleas. See under Common. "The Supreme Judicial Court shall have cognizance of pleas real, personal, and mixed."

That which is alleged or pleaded, in defense or in justification; an excuse; an apology. "Necessity, the tyrant's plea." "No plea must serve; 't is cruelty to spare."

An urgent prayer or entreaty.

Pleas of the crown (Eng. Law), criminal actions.

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Etymology of 'Plea'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Plea" Quotes from Famous Books

... your plea;— For truly I must own that we Each other have not seen for many a day. The culture, too, that shapes the world, at last Hath e'en the devil in its sphere embraced; The northern phantom from the scene hath pass'd, Tail, talons, horns, are nowhere to be ...

— Faust Part 1 • Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

... under the influence of Constant, who first made Europe listen to reason after the Bourbon restoration of 1815. {2} Her Considerations sur la Revolution francaise, published in 1818, one year after her death, was a bold though temperate plea for the cause of political liberty. At a moment of reaction when the Holy Alliance proclaimed the fraternity not of men but of monarchs, and the direct delegation by Divine Providence of its essential virtues ...

— The French Revolution - A Short History • R. M. Johnston

... head, but he looked very good-natured. Christy narrated the part Dave had taken in the capture of Captain Flanger in the cabin, and in recovering possession of the Bronx when it was shown that the officers were rebels. Mr. Flint was sent for. He was quite as earnest in his plea for the steward as the commander had been, and the written appointment of Mr. David Davis was in Christy's hands when the flag-officer took his leave ...

— Stand By The Union - SERIES: The Blue and the Gray--Afloat • Oliver Optic

... company. His conduct at last became so notorious that he fell under the censure of the Inquisition, before which he was summoned; whereupon he alleged, in his defence, that his sole motive for following the Gitanos was zeal for their spiritual conversion. Whether this plea availed him we know not; but it is probable that the Holy Office dealt mildly with him; such offenders, indeed, have never had much to fear from it. Had he been accused of liberalism, or searching into the Scriptures, ...

— The Zincali - An Account of the Gypsies of Spain • George Borrow

... Spanish law delighted. The plaintiffs in the case seem to have been the Xahila family, who brought the action to recover some of their ancient possessions or privileges, as one of the two ruling families of the Cakchiquel nation; and in order to establish this point, they filed in their plea the full history of their tribe and genealogy of their family, so far as was known to them by tradition or written record. It belongs to the class of legal instruments, called in Spanish law Titulos, family titles. A number of ...

— The Annals of the Cakchiquels • Daniel G. Brinton

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