Showing results for "pleading"

• present participle of plead.

pleading

American  

[plee-ding] / ˈpli dɪŋ /

noun

• pleadings
  plural

1. the act of a person who pleads.

2. Law.

   1. the advocating of a cause in a court of law.

   2. the art or science of setting forth or drawing pleas in legal causes.

   3. a formal statement, usually written, setting forth the cause of action or defense of a case.

   4. pleadings, the successive statements delivered alternately by plaintiff and defendant until the issue is joined.

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pleading British  

/ ˈpliːdɪŋ /

noun

1. the act of presenting a case in court, as by a lawyer on behalf of his client

2. the art or science of preparing the formal written statements of the parties to a legal action See also pleadings

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• pleadingness
  noun
• nonpleading
  adjective
• unpleading
  adjective
• nonpleadingly
  adverb
• pleadingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• pleadings
  plural

Etymology

Origin of pleading

1250–1300; Middle English pledynge (gerund). See plead, -ing ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pleading pleadings

Then she saw the video of him pleading with the police when they first accused him of the break-in.

From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026

On the new release, Mr. Iyer’s “Fire City,” which he first recorded with that group, gets distilled into fresh potency through the urgent and sometimes pleading tones of Mr. Threadgill’s saxophone.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

Another of her tunes, Jolene - which finds her pleading with a stunning rival not to steal her man - re-entered the chart at number nine on Friday.

From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026

Theater owners and two major Hollywood unions — the Directors Guild of America and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees — have joined the parade pleading for a settlement.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026

Behind them Jam could hear Hibiscus’s voice, ragged and pleading, saying how he would tell them everything, everything, if they could just please make sure it didn’t come back for him.

From "Pet" by Akwaeke Emezi

He expects to see more pleadings for exemptions from state housing laws.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 2, 2025

“Unless they were verified pleadings, or like a declaration, they are not something that can be used against Trump,” Rahmani said.

From Salon ● May 6, 2024

Of particular concern was that Osmer conducted most of the physical sobriety tests and questioning in a majority of the suspicious stops outside the view of his car’s dash camera, according to the lawsuit pleadings.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 15, 2024

It took 142 hearing days spread over almost six years, 800 pages of pleadings and more than 3,000 pages of documents from the lawyers to arrive at today's verdicts.

From BBC ● Feb. 27, 2024

The defense lawyer had filed no written pleadings and uttered no more than twelve transcript lines at sentencing.

From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson