parley
noun
a discussion or conference.
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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
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Island of the Blue Dolphins
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Julius Caesar
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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
My dad had a never-ending parley with pirates, but I would break the cycle “Hacker!” my brother muttered behind me.
From The Verge ● Aug. 11, 2022
When sufficient forces arrived—variously estimated at 125–300 men—white sheriff Columbus Nash summoned black organizer Levi Allen for a parley.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
And so when the rulers of Rome sought to parley with Sextus Pompeius, he demanded they do so thus: each party situated upon a floating platform, shouting to each other across the waves.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
The MS Centre Dorset runs a fleet of five minibuses, helping users across the county to get to its base in West Parley.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
The fall 2024 release is made using 30% of Parley Ocean Plastic, supporting the organization’s aim toward a more sustainable future.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 30, 2024
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
“Plastic is a design failure,” says Cyrill Gutsch, founder of Parley for the Oceans, who created the Adidas ocean waste shoe.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 21, 2018
No writer of the present day invests the themes of which he treats with livelier interest than the well-known Peter Parley.
From Illustrative Anecdotes of the Animal Kingdom by Samuel G. (Samuel Griswold) Goodrich
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
However, he soon presented himself in another quarter, and after a succession of parleys between us, he engaged to come and accompany us.
From Voyages from Montreal Through the Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in 1789 and 1793 Vol. II by Alexander Mackenzie
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
He withdrew from the shore a little way, and parleyed with the Indians through an interpreter, with the consequence that they desisted from their hostile demonstrations and soon engaged in friendly barter with the Spaniards.
From Vasco Nu?ez de Balboa by Frederick Albion Ober
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
Presidential Adviser Henry Kissinger and North Viet Nam's Le Due Tho have spent more than 45 hours parleying in Paris during the past month, trying to salvage last January's Indochina cease-fire agreement.
From Time Magazine Archive
After three months of mutually suspicious parleying, often held together only by the unflagging good temper of U.S.
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.
