ENTREATY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does entreaty mean? 

• ENTREATY (noun)
  The noun ENTREATY has 1 sense:

1. earnest or urgent request

  Familiarity information: ENTREATY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ENTREATY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Earnest or urgent request

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

appeal; entreaty; prayer

Context example:

an appeal to the public to keep calm

Hypernyms ("entreaty" is a kind of...):

asking; request (the verbal act of requesting)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "entreaty"):

adjuration (a solemn and earnest appeal to someone to do something)

demagoguery; demagogy (impassioned appeals to the prejudices and emotions of the populace)

plea; supplication (a humble request for help from someone in authority)

solicitation (an entreaty addressed to someone of superior status)

suit (a petition or appeal made to a person of superior status or rank)

courting; courtship; suit; wooing (a man's courting of a woman; seeking the affections of a woman (usually with the hope of marriage))

 Context examples 

With these words, and resisting our entreaties that she would grace the remaining circulation of the punch with her presence, Mrs. Micawber retired to my bedroom.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The dwarf, at my entreaty, had no other punishment than a sound whipping.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

All that Mrs. Ferrars could say to make him put an end to the engagement, assisted too as you may well suppose by my arguments, and Fanny's entreaties, was of no avail.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Entreaty should be from one quarter only.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

“What I cannot understand,” said I, “is why they should have spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman’s entreaties.”

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She begged him to remain at home, as she could hear the rain pattering against the window, but in spite of her entreaties he pulled on his large mackintosh and left the house.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Martin felt very uncomfortable, and looked entreaty at Ruth.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The poor man was more loud than ever, and though I could not distinguish a word he said, I could in some way recognise in his tones some passionate entreaty on his part.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Will no entreaties cause thee to turn a favourable eye upon thy creature, who implores thy goodness and compassion?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

You will hardly blame me for refusing to comply with this entreaty, or for resisting every repetition to it.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)