entreat
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: The verb is derived from Late Middle English entreten (“to deal with (someone) in a specified way; to concern oneself with (something); to deal with or give an account of (a topic); to engage in negotiation; to intercede for (someone); to plead with (someone)”), from Anglo-Norman entraiter, entretier (“to concern oneself with (something); to deal with (someone) in a specified manner; to have a conversation with (someone); to negotiate (with someone, or about something)”), Middle French entraiter, entraictier, and Old French entraictier (“to have a conversation with (someone); to concern oneself with (something)”), from en- (prefix meaning ‘in, into’) + traiter (“to be concerned with (something); to treat (someone) in a specified way”) (from Latin tractāre, the present active infinitive of tractō (“to handle, manage; to drag, haul”), from trahō (“to drag, pull; etc.”) (see that entry for the further etymology) + -tō (frequentative suffix)).
The noun is derived from Late Middle English entrete (“agreement; negotiation; treatment of a subject in discourse”), from the verb.
Inflected forms:
form: entreats
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: entreating
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: entreated
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: entreated
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: entreat
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: entreat
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: entreated
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: entreat
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: entreatest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: entreated
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: entreatedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: entreats
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: entreateth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: entreated
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: entreat
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: entreated
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: entreat
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: entreated
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: entreat
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: entreating
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: entreated
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: intreat
pos: verb
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: Senses relating to asking or pleading.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: If you be ſhe, I doe intreat your patience / To heare me ſpeake the meſſage I am ſent on.
My Lord vve muſt entreate the time alone.
Our tyred lymbes, bruſ'd in the morning fight, / Intreat ſoft reſt, and gentle huſht repoſe.
Thy Dukedome I reſigne, and doe entreat / Thou pardon me my vvrongs: […]
And the daughter of Tyre ſhall be there with a gift, euen the rich among the people ſhall intreate thy fauour.
Sir, I have made ſo ill uſe of your former favors, as by them to be encouraged to intreat that they may be enlarged to the patronage and protection of this Book; […]
So, ſtanding only on his good Behaviour, / He's very civill, and entreats your Favour.
He [the King] entreated that they vvould elect ſuch in particular, as had expreſſed a firm attachment to the proteſtant ſucceſſion vvhen it vvas in danger.
[W]hat indignity, vvhat impiety has my ſon to anſvver for? I entreat you vvill ſpeak explicitly, that I may prove I can loſe the mother in the ſtrict ſeverity of the judge.
So he may do for thee / Freely what thou entreatest, as thou yet / Be pleas'd, imprison'd spirit!
'Tis some late visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door— […]
gloss: Senses relating to asking or pleading.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Then Pharaoh called for Moſes and Aaron, and ſaid, Intreat the Lord, that hee may take away the frogges from me, and from my people: […]
Go vvhen you vvill, (ſaid Agamemnon) fly, / Ile not entreat you for my ſake to ſtay.
And here I muſt intreat the Reader to preſerve his full freedom of mind intire, and not vveakly ſuffer his judgment to be overborn by your imagination and your prejudices, by Ghoſts and Viſions, and above all by that extreme ſatisfaction and complacency vvith vvhich you utter your ſtrange conceits; […]
[A]ll vvhom I entreat to ſing, are inſtantaneouſly troubled vvith colds; […]
His spear gored thy breast, O Ethelwold; though with supplications thou intreatedst him to spare thy life.
Ask me no questions, I entreat you.
gloss: Senses relating to asking or pleading.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: [S]he could in no wiſe be intreated with her good vyll to delyuer him, […]
This ſhould intreat your highneſſe to reioice, / Since Fortune giues you opportunity, / To gaine the tytle of a Conquerour, […]
No ſolace could her Paramour intreat / Her once to ſhovv, ne court, ne dalliaunce, / But vvith bent lovvring brovves, as ſhe vvould threat, / She ſcould, and frovvnd vvith frovvard countenaunce, / Vnvvorthy of faire Ladies comely gouernaunce.
VVith a hundred bleſsings and many praiers thou intreatſt mee to loue thee.
I haue beene vvooed as I intreat thee novv, / Euen by the ſterne, and direfull god of vvarre, / VVhoſe ſinovvie necke in battel nere did bovv, / VVho conquers vvhere he comes in euerie iarre, […]
If my tongue cannot intreate you to acquit mee, vvill you commaund me to vſe my legges?
Indeprecable […] that vvill not be intreated, or moved to yeeld.
Then I asked him, VVhat I muſt do vvhen I came? and he told me, I muſt intreat upon my knees vvith all my heart and ſoul, the Father to reveal him to me.
[I]f this terror [the fear of God] vvere merely that ſervile dread vvhich repreſents God as an implacable, inexorable being, the ſoul under ſuch an impreſſion vvould ſit dovvn unactive, overvvhelmed vvith an horrible deſpair; and never engage in a fruitleſs attempt to appeaſe a povver, vvhom no prayers could intreat, no repentance reconcile.
The curioſity of the lady vvas highly inflamed, to knovv the hiſtory of the parrot's tranſmigration, vvhich ſhe intreated the bird vvith all her eloquence to relate; but he preſented a deaf ear to her importunity, and, like a painted nightingale, remained ſilent.
I may be absent a month or two; but do not interfere with my motions, I entreat you: leave me to peace and solitude for a short time; and when I return, I hope it will be with a lighter heart, more congenial to your own temper.
Mrs. Fairfax is with her just now, entreating her to be gone; but she has taken a chair in the chimney-corner, and says nothing shall stir her from it till she gets leave to come in here.
gloss: Senses relating to asking or pleading.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: [T]he rayſing of people, and aſſemble of Souldiours by him, could ſignifie no peace, nor treatie of concorde: except a man ſhould ſaye, that intreating for fauour with naked ſworde in hande, were an humble ſubmiſſion and a meeke requeſt: […]
Still ſhe intreats, and prettily intreats, / For to a prettie eare ſhe tunes her tale.
Theſe are the motives, vvhich t' induce, / Or fright us into Love, you uſe, / […] / Like ſturdy Beggers, that intreat, / For Charity, at once, and threat, […]
[S]he diſdains and threatens, and again is humble, and intreats; and nothing availing, deſpairs, curſes, and at laſt becomes her ovvn Executioner.
[S]he had made some knocking, and she owned she had heard her moan bitterly, as she entreated for admission.
Behold it is not Pepi [I Meryre] who entreateth to see thee in the form which thou art [hieroglyphic text omitted], O Osiris, who entreateth to see thee in the form in which thou art, O Osiris; but it is thy son who entreateth to see thee in the form in which thou art, O Osiris, it is Horus who entreateth to see thee in the form in which thou art […]
One heart / Tenderly beating / Ever entreating / Constant and true
gloss: Senses relating to asking or pleading.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
intransitive
examples: Wil ye accepte yͤ perſonne of God, and intreate for him?
That if ſhe loue me, I charge her to loue thee: if ſhe vvill not, I vvill neuer haue her, vlneſſe thou intreat for her: […]
[T]hey […] charg'd me on paine / Of their diſpleaſure, neither to ſpeake of him, / Intreat for him, nor in any vvay ſuſtaine him.
And Moſes ſaide vnto Pharaoh, Glory ouer mee: when ſhall I entreat for thee, and for thy ſeruants, and for thy people to deſtroy the frogges from thee, and thy houſes, that they may remaine in the riuer onely?
And, for your envoy, he shall die, the rather and the sooner that thou dost entreat for him.
gloss: Senses relating to dealing with or negotiating.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: And here I ſpeake of the generation, wherby they doo engender, and not of that, wherby they are engendred, becauſe it ſhuld be to long to intreate, howe the chyldren of lyght are ingendred, and how they come in at the doore: and howe the children of the world be engendred, and come in an other way.
Vncle, you ſay the Queene is at your houſe, / For Gods ſake fairely let her be intreated.
Is it not enough that my aunt, her mother [Catherine of Aragon], was evil entreated by the king [Henry VIII] that dead is, but my cousin [Mary I of England] must be worse ordered by councillors now.
The Lord ſaid, Uerely it ſhall be well with thy remnant, verely I will cauſe the enemie to intreat thee well in the time of euill, and in the time of affliction.
Frederick [II, Holy Roman Emperor] before he ratified any thing by oath, ſent to have the Popes [Innocent IV's] approbation: vvho ill entreated and impriſoned his meſſengers, denied them audience, and contemptuouſly tore the Emperors letters.
They will be scourged; and I, whom they have comforted and kindly entreated, must look on and see the great wrong done; it is strange, so strange! that I, the very source of power in this broad realm, am helpless to protect them.
[T]hou actedst kindly by him and entreatedst him generously, what time he was out of work; so, when he seeth thee, he will rejoice in thee and entreat thee generously, even as thou entreatedst him.
See that you entreat him well and do his biddings as if they were my own.
gloss: Senses relating to dealing with or negotiating.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: [T]hey entreated the ſayd companyons and offred them golde⸝ and ſyluer⸝ and paſſage: […]
gloss: Senses relating to dealing with or negotiating.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
reflexive
transitive
examples: The Gardin of Proſerpina […] ſhe often vſd from open heat / Her ſelfe to ſhroud, and pleaſures to entreat.
gloss: Senses relating to dealing with or negotiating.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: [O]f all theſe ſeuerally I intend to intreate in the folovving chapters.
[T]he moſt admirable myſtery of Nature, in my mind, is the turning of yron touched vvith the loadſtone, tovvard the North-pole, of vvhich I ſhall have farther occaſion to intreate, […]
[Y]ou ſhould diigently vveigh and conſider the matter vvhereof Paul intreateth: for he intreateth of the vvord of God, vvhich can never be maginified enough.
gloss: Senses relating to dealing with or negotiating.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: [B]ytwene theſe parties entreated for a peace⸝ the archbyſhoppe of Senus⸝ the byſſhoppe of Auſſer⸝ the byſſhoppe of Beaumoys⸝ the lorde of Momorency⸝ the lorde of Fyenes⸝ and the lorde of ſaynt Uenant.
[W]hiles yͤ bones of Marcello were a brẽning [brenning, i.e., burning], ſhe was entreting to mary an other huſbãd [husband], […]
And this mariage agreed vpon (which ſemeth more likely to be intreated of then cõcluded [i.e., than concluded].
Ile ſend ſome holy Biſhop to intreat: / For God forbid, ſo many ſimple ſoules / Should periſh by the Svvord.
But with Alexander they were well pleaſed, becauſe hee was the firſt that entreated of peace with them, and they were confederate with him alwayes.
[C]hiefs and warriors of the Senecas, the Delawares, and the Shawnees, came to light the council-fire, to smoke the calumet, and to entreat for peace.
Derived words: entract
entreatable
entreatance
entreated
entreater
entreatful
entreating
entreatingly
entreatise
entreative
entreatment
entreaty
misentreat
over-entreat
unentreated
Translations: