plea

noun

1. An appeal, petition, urgent prayer or entreaty.

   “Even if only one person answers my plea for someone to correspond with it will be a blessing.”

   “a plea for mercy”

   “make a plea”

2. An excuse; an apology.

   “Necessity, the tyrant’s plea.”

   “No Plea must serve; ’tis cruelty to spare.”

3. That which is alleged or pleaded, in defense or in justification.
4. That which is alleged by a party in support of his cause.
5. An allegation of fact in a cause, as distinguished from a demurrer.
6. The defendant’s answer to the plaintiff’s declaration and demand.
7. A cause in court; a lawsuit; as, the Court of Common Pleas.

   “they or any three of them shall be a Court and have cognizance of pleas real, personal, and mixed.”

verb

1. (England, Scotland, regional)To plead; to argue.

   “With my riches, my unhappiness was increased tenfold; and here, with another great acquisition of property, for which I had pleaed, and which I had gained in a dream, my miseries and difficulties were increasing.”