parley
noun
a discussion or conference.
Jump To:
parley
1 American
[pahr-lee]
/ ˈpɑr li /
noun
-
parleys
plural
-
a discussion or conference.
- Synonyms:
- conversation, talk
-
an informal conference between enemies under a truce, especially to discuss terms, conditions of surrender, etc.
Parley
2
American
[pahr-lee]
/ ˈpɑr li /
noun
parley
British
/ ˈpɑːlɪ /
noun
verb
-
(intr) to discuss, esp with an enemy under a truce
-
(tr) to speak (a foreign language)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
parleysimple
-
parleyssimple
-
have parleyedperfect
-
has parleyedperfect
-
am parleyingprogressive
-
are parleyingprogressive
-
is parleyingprogressive
-
have been parleyingperfect progressive
-
has been parleyingperfect progressive
Past
-
parleyedsimple
-
had parleyedperfect
-
was parleyingprogressive
-
were parleyingprogressive
-
had been parleyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of parley
1400–50; late Middle English parlai < Middle French parlee, noun use of feminine of parle, past participle of parler to parle
Explanation
A formal discussion between enemies or opponents is called a parley. A British drummer called for a parley between the British and American armies in 1781, and officers from both sides then discussed the terms of Britain's surrender. Parley can also be used as a verb, meaning to discuss or negotiate, such as between enemies or opponents. If your siblings are fighting, you may need to encourage them to parley in another room in order to discuss their differences and hopefully settle the problem once and for all.
Vocabulary lists containing parley
Beowulf
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Julius Caesar
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
By that standard President Trump’s Beijing parley with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week was a success.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
Sadat was assassinated in October 1981, a scant three years after that historic parley.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 1, 2025
Back at the studio the anchors vacuously nod at Nandor's escalating trumpery, as they do when The Guide wrests Joanna's microphone away to parley on behalf of all vampires.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2023
After the Twitter tango exchange, Falck reached out to his old friend Shah to see if he and their bosses would be amenable to a parley.
From The Verge ● Nov. 4, 2021
Both armies will have to stay well back for the parley.
From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin
"The longer I've been working with Talisker and Parley the more I've learnt about sea kelp and how essential the preservation of these amazing sea kelp forests are," he said.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2022
While Miami’s evergreen thirds may look like the greenest jersey in college football, that title actually belongs to the Canes’ Miami x Parley A1 collabs, made from recycled and repurposed ocean material.
From Golf Digest ● Aug. 27, 2018
Novelists Louise Erdrich and Megan Hunter, along with Parley Ann Boswell, talk about the artistic choice of featuring pregnant women in dystopian fiction.
From Slate ● May 10, 2018
McCartney is using the yarn on two products: the Adidas by Stella McCartney Parley Ultra Boost shoe for fall and the limited-edition Ocean Legend Falabella.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2017
Brother Roundy and myself started a few hours after for Richmond, being on our way to Far West, for the purpose of visiting Parley P. Pratt and others, in jail.
From Life of Heber C. Kimball, an Apostle The Father and Founder of the British Mission by Orson F. Whitney
Last February, after multiple military parleys, Indian and Chinese troops completed a pullout from a lake area in Ladakh.
From Reuters ● Mar. 25, 2022
Whereas posts on Twitter are called tweets, on Parler they are known as "parleys."
From Salon ● Jan. 8, 2021
There are meals of carne asada and manioc soup; parleys over endless rounds of yerba maté; social scandals that erupt at horse races; deadly tropical fevers; and red dust, relentless sun, and clouds of mosquitoes.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 15, 2017
Middle Eastern Christians have no army of their own, no government that represents them in world capitals, no voice in international parleys that have a bearing on their fate.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 14, 2015
The crowd outside waxed unruly, impatient at these useless parleys.
From History of the Commune of 1871 by P. Lissagary
The tectonic buzz and growl of a didgeridoo, played with athletic skill by Harry Wilson, parleyed with the music, then settled beneath it like bedrock.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 17, 2019
For her guides across the universe, Reid gets three masters of space and time: the first is played by Mindy Kaling, who parleyed the sitcom she created into multiple book deals and a growing empire.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 22, 2018
He parleyed that experience into an underdog run for the U.S.
From Seattle Times ● May 3, 2016
A couple of winners parleyed their F-I-F-T-E-E-N minutes of fame into writing training books for aspiring champions: A Champion's Guide to Success in Spelling Bees and How to Spell Like a Champ.
From Slate ● Jun. 1, 2012
There the colonel and his men halted, and he parleyed with the people.
From Pius IX. And His Time by Æneas MacDonell Dawson
A comeback means nothing without the proper follow-through; it only officially reaches completion when the party in question cements their newfound legitimacy by parleying it into a more protracted stretch of success.
From The Guardian ● May 24, 2017
And, not that I’m complaining, the PS4 and Xbox One are basically cheap midrange PCs, parleying the lingua franca of a decades-old gaming paradigm interface-wise.
From Time ● Nov. 26, 2014
After three months of mutually suspicious parleying, often held together only by the unflagging good temper of U.S.
From Time Magazine Archive
Right after the elections, the L.D.P. announced that it would select a new leader by ballot rather than through the kind of back-room parleying that brought Noboru Takeshita and Sousuke Uno to power.
From Time Magazine Archive
Some parleying was audible in the hall, and soon the new-comer entered.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
