▪ I. pleading, vbl. n.
(ˈpliːdɪŋ)
Forms: see plead v.
[f. plead v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb plead, in various senses.
† 1. The carrying on of a suit in a court of law, litigation; hence, a law-suit, action, legal process; a controversy. Obs.
| 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 9662 In playdinge & in asise..& in Iugement also. c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. iii. pr. iii 55 (Camb. MS.) Whennes comyn elles alle thyse foreyne compleyntes or quereles of pletynges. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 431 b/1 Doubtyng that the stryf accions and pletynges of the poure shold come onely to the presence and knowlege of hys counceyllours. 1556 Aurelio & Isab. (1608) K iij, That they be juges, parties, and advocates of one selfe pletinge. |
2. The advocating of a cause in a court of law; the art of drawing pleadings; the body of rules and usages constituting this art.
| 1377 Langl. P.Pl. B. iii. 294 Shal no seriaunt..were..no pelure in his cloke for pledyng atte barre. c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. ¶92 Ther ne shal no pledynge [Hengwrt MS. pletynge] auaille ne sleighte, we shullen yeuen rekenynge of euerich ydel word. 14.. Pol., Rel. & L. Poems (1866) 96 Ther charter helpys þe not þat dey, Ther pletyn is not worth an hawe. 1522 Skelton Why not to Court 315 In pletynge of theyr case At the Commune Place. 1552 Huloet, Pleadynge, actitatio, aduocatio. 1766 Entick London IV. 34 The terms, or times for pleading and ending of causes in the Civil Courts. 1875 Maine Hist. Inst. ix. 255 The proceedings included a series of assertions and reassertions of right by the parties, and this formal dialogue was the parent of the Art of Pleading. |
3. A formal allegation, now generally a written document (formerly, an oral statement) setting forth the cause of action or the defence; in pl. pleadings, the formal statements on both sides; in strict use, excluding the count or declaration.
| 1531 Elyot Gov. i. xiv, The pleadynge used in courte and Chauncery called motes. 1540 Act 32 Hen. VIII, c. 30 §1 Replycacyons, reioynders, rebutters, ioynyng of issues, and other pleadynges. 1596 Bacon Max. & Use Com. Law i. iii. (1636) 22 Pleadings must be certain, because the adverse party may know wherto to answer. 1768 Blackstone Comm. III. xx. 293 Pleadings are the mutual altercations between the plaintiff and defendant; which at present are set down and delivered into the proper office in writing. 1825 Act 6 Geo. IV, c. 120 §10 The Record of the Pleadings as adjusted shall be authenticated by the Lord Ordinary by his Signature; and the Record so made up and authenticated shall be held as foreclosing the Parties from the Statement of any new Averments in point of Fact. 1883 H. H. S. Croft Elyot's Gov. I. 152 note, The pleadings down to the time of Edward III were vivâ voce, and those who pleaded orally would no doubt pursue the method first recommended by Quintilian in his Institutes, and afterwards adopted by later Rhetoricians. 1885 Law Rep. 29 Ch. Div. 451 The Court is entitled to look at the pleadings in the Irish action. |
4. gen. Intercession, advocacy, supplications, earnest entreaty.
| c 1430 Hymns Virg. 97 ‘What’, quod þe synner, ‘..Canst þou neuere of þi pletinge blynne?’ 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 243 Makyng (as saynt Paule sayth) interpellacyon & pletynge for vs before y⊇ father of heuen. a 1758 Ramsay Adieu for while ii, Thou dost not obey The pleading of love. 1791 Mrs. Radcliffe Rom. Forest i, The beauty..of Adeline, united with the pleadings of humanity in her favour. 1874 Green Short Hist. viii. §5.511 ‘Comus’..rises into an almost impassioned pleading for the love of virtue. |
5. See special pleading.
6. attrib. and Comb., as pleading-house, pleading-place, etc.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 405/1 Pletynge howse, or place, placitorium. 1656 Cowley Pind. Odes, 34th Chapter Isaiah v, Then shall the Market and the Pleading-place Be Choakt with Brambles and oregrown with grass. 1888 Ld. Herschell in Law Rep., Ho. Lords XIII. 9 As a pleading point, this would have been good. |
▪ II. ˈpleading, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That pleads; entreating, beseeching, imploring.
| 1818 Shelley Rosalind & H. 870 What avail..the knit soul that pleading and pale Makes wan the quivering cheek? 1880 M. E. Braddon Just as I am vi, He noticed that tender pleading glance at the time. Mod. His pleading tones move compassion. |
Hence ˈpleadingly adv., in a pleading manner; ˈpleadingness, the quality of pleading.
| 1847 Webster, Pleadingly, by pleading. 1865 E. C. Clayton Cruel Fortune I. 227 She looked so pleadingly, so beseechingly,..that Lady Charington relented. 1866 N. Bellairs Wayside Fl. iii. 27 Cry..of a little child... Its intense pleadingness haunted me. 1868 Geo. Eliot Sp. Gipsy iii. 293 She spoke tenderly, pleadingly. |