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Ply   /plaɪ/   Listen
verb
Ply  v. t.  (past & past part. plied; pres. part. plying)  
1.
To bend. (Obs.) "As men may warm wax with handes plie."
2.
To lay on closely, or in folds; to work upon steadily, or with repeated acts; to press upon; to urge importunately; as, to ply one with questions, with solicitations, or with drink. "And plies him with redoubled strokes" "He plies the duke at morning and at night."
3.
To employ diligently; to use steadily. "Go ply thy needle; meddle not."
4.
To practice or perform with diligence; to work at. "Their bloody task, unwearied, still they ply."



Ply  v. i.  
1.
To bend; to yield. (Obs.) "It would rather burst atwo than plye." "The willow plied, and gave way to the gust."
2.
To act, go, or work diligently and steadily; especially, to do something by repeated actions; to go back and forth; as, a steamer plies between certain ports. "Ere half these authors be read (which will soon be with plying hard and daily)." "He was forced to ply in the streets as a porter." "The heavy hammers and mallets plied."
3.
(Naut.) To work to windward; to beat.



noun
Ply  n.  
1.
A fold; a plait; a turn or twist, as of a cord.
2.
Bent; turn; direction; bias. "The late learners can not so well take the ply." "Boswell, and others of Goldsmith's contemporaries,... did not understand the secret plies of his character." "The czar's mind had taken a strange ply, which it retained to the last." Note: Ply is used in composition to designate folds, or the number of webs interwoven; as, a three-ply carpet.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Ply" Quotes from Famous Books



... courses the ring is kept well away from the enclosure. Last year the V.R.C. obliged the bookmakers to take out licenses to ply their craft at all on the course. And this brings me to the subject of betting and gambling generally. If the Australians are a racing community, so also are they a gambling community. The popularity of the Melbourne Cup is largely due to its being the great ...
— Town Life in Australia - 1883 • R. E. N. (Richard) Twopeny

... that navigation was difficult. The early gazettes constantly referred to the crowded condition of the river. The water front seethed with activity. One finds the notice in a newspaper of 1786 of the arrival from St. Petersburg, Russia, of the ship Hunter of Alexandria. She was advertised to ply her trade between these two places. This ship was built, owned, and sailed by an Alexandrian, and was but one of many claiming Alexandria as home port. Far corners of the earth were united in this ancient harbor for a hundred years or more. "Commerce and Shipping" ...
— Seaport in Virginia - George Washington's Alexandria • Gay Montague Moore

... more excursive bent, Their vagrant arts to ply, To all the various places went, That in the neighbourhood lie; To Datchet, Slough, or Horton they, Or e'en to Colnbrook, took their way, Or ancient Windsor's regal town; Stopp'd every body they could meet, Knocked at each house, in every street, In ...
— Gossip in the First Decade of Victoria's Reign • John Ashton

... Nature's brag, and must be shown In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, Where most may wonder at the workmanship. It is for homely features to keep home; They had their name thence: coarse complexions And cheeks of sorry grain will serve to ply The sampler, and to tease the huswife's wool. What need a vermeil-tinctured lip for that, Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn? There was another meaning in these gifts; Think what, and be advised; you are but young yet. LADY. I had not thought to have unlocked my lips In ...
— L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Comus, and Lycidas • John Milton

... Union Square, at night, without his being accosted by one of these girls, who, instead of asking him to purchase flowers, would invariably remark, "Give me a penny, mister?" by which term, afterwards, all these girls of loose character were known to ply their trade. Many of these girls were so exceedingly handsome as to be taken by gentlemen of means and well cared for, and one instance is known where a flower girl married a very wealthy ...
— Danger! A True History of a Great City's Wiles and Temptations • William Howe


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