ply

Meaning

Noun

1. A layer of material.
2. A strand that, twisted together with other strands, makes up rope or yarn.
3. (colloquial) Short for plywood.
4. In two-player sequential games, a "half-turn" or a move made by one of the players.
5. A condition, a state.

Verb

1. (obsolete) To bend; to fold; to mould; (figuratively) to adapt, to modify; to change (a person's) mind, to cause (a person) to submit.
2. To bend, to flex; to be bent by something, to give way or yield (to a force, etc.).

Verb

1. To work at (something) diligently.
2. To wield or use (a tool, a weapon, etc.) steadily or vigorously.
3. To press upon; to urge persistently.
4. To persist in offering something to, especially for the purpose of inducement or persuasion.
5. To travel over (a route) regularly.
6. (obsolete) To work diligently.
7. (obsolete) To manoeuvre a sailing vessel so that the direction of the wind changes from one side of the vessel to the other; to work to windward, to beat, to tack.

Pronounced as (IPA)

/plaɪ/

Etymology

From Middle English pleit, plit, plite (“a fold, pleat, wrinkle; braid, strand in a braided cord, ply”), from Anglo-Norman pli, plei, pleit, and Middle French pli, ploy, ply (“a fold, pleat; joint in armour; situation, state”) (modern French pli (“a fold, pleat”)), from plier, ployer (“to bend, fold”), from Latin plicāre, present active infinitive of plicō (“to bend, fold, roll up”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- (“to fold, plait, weave”).