ply

«ply» in Mova's school dictionary: to keep giving them food or drink, often more than they want — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

verb (plies, plying, plied)

meaning for a pupil

1) To ply someone with something is to keep giving them food or drink, often more than they want. tree →

2) (old use) To ply a trade or tool is to work at it steadily. tree →

sense in the lessons

in stories a host keeps pressing a guest to drink, so that the guest is made foolish or unable to leave

examples

• The merchant seated him at table and began plying him with brandy. tree →
• He kept plying the guest with cakes and tea. tree →
• The old sailor plied his trade by the harbour for forty years. tree →

note

nothing for maths

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «ply» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.