Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Ply

Ply (plī), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Plied; p. pr. & vb. n. Plying.] [OE. plien, F. plier to fold, to bend, fr. L. plicare; akin to Gr. πλέκειν, G. flechten. Cf. Apply, Complex, Display, Duplicity, Employ, Exploit, Implicate, Plait, Pliant, Flax.] 1. To bend. [Obs.]

As men may warm wax with handes plie. Chaucer.

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 Dryden.

He plies the duke at morning and at night. Shak.

3. To employ diligently; to use steadily.

Go ply thy needle; meddle not. Shak.

4. To practice or perform with diligence; to work at.

Their bloody task, unwearied, still they ply. Waller.

Ply, v. i. 1. To bend; to yield. [Obs.]

It would rather burst atwo than plye. Chaucer.

The willow plied, and gave way to the gust. L'Estrange.

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). Milton.

He was forced to ply in the streets as a porter. Addison.

The heavy hammers and mallets plied. Longfellow.

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

Ply, n. [Cf. F. pli, fr. plier. See Ply, v.] 1. A fold; a plait; a turn or twist, as of a cord. Arbuthnot.

2. Bent; turn; direction; bias.

The late learners can not so well take the ply. Bacon.

Boswell, and others of Goldsmith's contemporaries, . . . did not understand the secret plies of his character. W. Irving.

The czar's mind had taken a strange ply, which it retained to the last. Macaulay.

☞ Ply is used in composition to designate folds, or the number of webs interwoven; as, a three-ply carpet.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.