ply

Wikipedia

English

Pronunciation

• IPA: /plaɪ/
• Rhymes: -aɪ

Etymology 1

From Middle English, from Middle French pli (“pleat, fold”), from plier (“bend, fold”), from Latin plico (“fold, fold together”)

Noun

ply (plural plies)

1. A layer of material. (two-ply toilet paper)
2. A strand that, twisted together with other strands, makes up yarn or rope.
3. (colloquial) Plywood.
4. (artificial intelligence, game theory) In two-player sequential games, a "half-turn", or one move made by one of the players.

   He proposed to build 'Deep Purple' a super-computer capable of 24-ply look-ahead for chess.

5. (now chiefly Scotland) State, condition.
   • 1749, John Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, Penguin 1985, p. 66:

     You may be sure, in the ply I was now taking, I had no objection to the proposal, and was rather a-tiptoe for its accomplishment.

Etymology 2

From Middle English plien (“bend, fold, mold”), from Middle French plier (“bend, fold”), see Etymololgy 1.

Verb

ply (third-person singular simple present plies, present participle plying, simple past and past participle plied)

1. (transitive) to bend; to fold.
2. (intransitive) to flex.

Derived terms

• plier (agent noun)
• pliers

Translations

to bend; to fold

• Slovak: zohnúť (sk), zložiť (sk), preložiť (sk), poskladať (sk)
• French: plier (fr)
• Russian: скручивать (ru) (skrúčivatʹ), сгибать (ru) (sgibátʹ)

to flex

• Slovak: ohnúť (sk)
• Russian: сгибать (ru) (sgibátʹ)

Etymology 3

From Middle English plien, short for applien (“apply”)

Verb

ply (third-person singular simple present plies, present participle plying, simple past and past participle plied)

1. (transitive) To work at diligently.

   He plied his trade as carpenter for forty-three years.

2. (transitive) To use vigorously.

   He plied his ax with bloody results.

3. (transitive) To travel over regularly.

   ply the seven seas

4. (transitive) To persist in offering.
   • 1929, M. Barnard Eldershaw, A House Is Built, Chapter VII, Section vi

     Esther began […] to cry. But when the fire had been lit specially to warm her chilled limbs and Adela had plied her with hot negus she began to feel rather a heroine.

   She plied him with liquor.

Translations

to work at diligently

• Russian: усердно работать (ru) (rabotatʹ) (usérdno rabótatʹ)
• Slovak: makať (colloq.) (sk)

to use vigorously

to travel over regularly

• Russian: курсировать (ru) (kursírovatʹ)
• Slovak: premávať (sk)

to persist in offering

• Russian: потчевать (ru) (pótčevatʹ)

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.