1. Begging
   "The child gave his mother a pleading look, hoping for permission to stay up late";
   - beseeching, imploring

1. (law) a statement in legal and logical form stating something on behalf of a party to a legal proceeding
   "The lawyer filed a pleading requesting dismissal of the charges"

1. Appeal or request earnestly
   "I pleaded with him to stop"
    
2. (law) enter a plea, as in courts of law
   "She pleaded not guilty"
    
3. (law) make an allegation in an action or other legal proceeding, especially answer the previous pleading of the other party by denying facts therein stated or by alleging new facts
   "The defendant pleaded not guilty to all charges"; "Her lawyer pleaded extenuating circumstances"
    
4. Offer as an excuse or plea
   "She was pleading insanity"

Derived forms: pleadings

See also: adjuratory, importunate, mendicant, petitionary, precative, precatory, suppliant, supplicant, supplicatory

Type of: allege, appeal, aver, declare, excuse, invoke, pronounce, rationalise [Brit], rationalize, say, statement

Encyclopedia: Pleading