entreaty

plural entreaties · alternative obsolete intreaty

1. countableuncountableThe act of entreating or beseeching; a strong petition; pressing solicitation; begging.

   1779, William Ward, An Essay on Grammar as it may be applied to the English Language, New Edition, page 202, In all commands or entreaties, the ſtate commanded, or entreated, muſt be contingent; i. e. capable of being, or not being, as the command or entreaty expreſſes it.

   4 more examples

   She gathered many of the stones which I built into the walls of the hut; also, she turned a deaf ear to my entreaties when I begged her to desist.

   1904, Jack London, chapter 30, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC

   1964 October, P. F. Strawson, Intention and Convention in Speech Acts, The Philosophical Review, Volume 73, Number 4, page 444, We can readily imagine circumstances in which an utterance of the words "Don't go" would be correctly described not as a request or an order, but as an entreaty.

   The entreaties of a lover and the rejection of the heroine lend charm to the stanza.

   2002, N. P. Unni, Makers of Indian Literature: Amaruka, Sahitya Akademi, page 32

   When the tears didn't come, she flicked on the desktop terminal and loaded up the query client. As expected, she had answers to every entreaty. Department of Tactical Theology: "The anomaly you describe has no apparent religious or ritual significance." Antimemetics Department: "This subject falls well outside our purview." (She couldn't remember why she'd bothered emailing them, whoever they were.) Medical Department: "The symptoms you describe suggest no known pathology, anomalous or otherwise." Temporal Anomalies Department: "These factors carry no obvious temporal indices." Every end was dead.

   2022 September 15, HarryBlank, “The Mourning After”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 23 May 2024

2. archaiccountableuncountableA treatment; reception; entertainment.